A 
 
 ^ 
 
 c: 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 Z 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 m 
 
 4 
 6 
 
 mV FA 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 —1 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 ■jtHmiairBj 
 
 
 
 PR 
 
 3012 
 
 i 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 
 
 > 
 
 i 
 
 -! 
 
 ^^^^^^^^Ei f ^^
 
 
 SHAKSPERB 
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE.
 
 SHAKSPERE 
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 
 
 REV. ALFRED POWNALL, M.A. 
 
 VICAR OF TROWSE NEWTON AND I.AKENHAM, LATE CROSSe's THEOLOGICAL 
 SCHOLAR, CAMBRIDGE, ETC., ETC. 
 
 Who hath not heard it spoken 
 How deep you were within the books of God ? 
 
 King Henry VI., Part H. 
 
 LOND ON: 
 SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO., 
 
 66, BROOK STREET. 
 1864. 
 
 [All rights reserved.]
 
 LONDON 
 5H0BEKL, PRINTER, 37, DEAN STREET, SOHO, VV.
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 TO 
 
 EDWARD FORDHAM FLOWER, ESQ., 
 
 MAYOR OF STRATFORD-ON-AVON, 
 
 AND VICE-CHAIRMAN 
 
 OP THE SHAKSPERE TERCENTENARY CELEBRATION, 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
 
 PREFACE TO THE READER. 
 
 In submitting this little volume to a Shakspere- revering 
 public, the author has but little to remark by way of 
 preface. Of course he does not expect that every one who 
 peruses this work will look upon all the coincidences there 
 noted, between Holy Scripture and Shakspere, as designed 
 and intentional on the part of the Poet ; and he is fully 
 aware that some of the instances of coincidence brought 
 forward will, naturally enough, appear less marked and 
 striking than others. He cannot, however, help thinking 
 that a work like tlie present, may have the effect of at least 
 turninjr the thou2:hts of the lovers of our national Poet 
 into a new channel, and of inducing them to carry on fur 
 themselves the interesting comparison here initiated between 
 England's Bible and England's Poet. The author wishes 
 to state that he has derived no assistance whatever from any 
 similar work (if any such there be) on the same subject ;
 
 Vlll PREFACE TO THE READER, 
 
 and whatever be the opinion of the reader respecting the 
 following pages, they are offered as a small tribute, humble 
 but hearty, of appreciation of the immortal Bard, to whom 
 England in this memorable year, is intending, with one 
 heart and with one voice, to testify her homage and 
 admiration. 
 
 A. P. 
 Easter, 1864.
 
 SHAKSPEEE 
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 
 
 So lono; as the constitution of the human mind continues 
 unaltered, Shakspere will maintain unquestioned the illus- 
 trious titles of " the High Priest of Nature, and the 
 Instructor of Mankind." 
 
 Such being the claims of Shakspere to our admiration 
 and respect, I feel sure that I shall incur the displeasure of 
 none but the most narrow-minded, (whose very censure is 
 praise) by endeavouring to set before the reader a few selec- 
 tions which he may read with pleasure, and which a 
 clergyman may bring forward with a full confidence that 
 he is not " misusing the reverence of his place," ' or forgetful 
 of the sacred office which it is his honour and his privilege 
 to hold. 
 
 The special object which I propose in submitting to the 
 reader certain selections from the works of our national 
 Poet, is to show, that whatever might be the stock of 
 human learning which Shakspere had amassed, whether by 
 translations, or otherwise, from the current literature of his 
 day, there was one volume which he had evidently perused 
 with more than ordinary diligence and attention. I shall 
 
 ' King Henry IV., Part II., iv. 2.
 
 SHAKSPERE 
 
 endeavour to prove how " deep he was within the books of 
 God ; " and to point out how the sublime ideas of the 
 Scriptures, and oftentimes the very language in which those 
 ideas are couched, are reproduced again and again in the 
 pages of Shakspere ; and that some of the choicest flowers 
 of his poesy have borrowed their odours from the sacred soil 
 from which they have been transplanted. ; But it has been 
 objected that our Poet is chargeable with a gross irreverence 
 and frivolity in the use of the sacred words of the Bible. 
 Does not the case rather stand thus ? Shakspere, as a Poet 
 of Nature, sets men before us as they are : and it would be 
 unnatural and absurd, if we found his frivolous characters 
 talking with reverence for holy subjects, and simulating a 
 respect for the Sacred Scriptures, which they neither feel, 
 nor care to feel. If Shakspere was to introduce such cha- 
 racters at all, he could not do otherwise than introduce 
 them as they are, irreverent and profane. Such characters 
 were common in his day, and are unhappily found among 
 ourselves ; characters, which would not be depicted truly, 
 if divested of the spots and blemishes which disfigure while 
 yet they characterise, their pitiful possessors. 
 
 The business of selecting passages fi-om the writings of 
 our Poet has been a very agreeable, but by no means an 
 easy task. We always experience, after wandering through 
 the dreary desert of human thought and expression, a pecu- 
 liar and sensible pleasure when we light suddenly and 
 unexpectedly on an oasis of scriptural phraseology. Most 
 of us have doubtless felt this at some time or other, while 
 sitting out a dull and prosy discourse, where the text was 
 the only part worth listening to ; and we have been grati- 
 fied, under the circumstances, by its frequent reiteration in 
 the course of the sermon.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 3 
 
 The difficulty whicli I encountered, in selecting passages 
 from Shakspere suitable to the purpose which I have in 
 view, arose from a reluctance to throw aside many bright 
 gems of thought and diction which I might with equal pro- 
 priety have retained. But, where all could not be noticed, 
 many have been passed over; not from any intrinsic 
 inferiority in themselves, but simply from the necessity 
 which limit of time and space imposes upon me. 
 
 The search among the works of the great Poet, and the 
 reluctant sacrifice which I was compelled to make, of so 
 much that is rare and valuable, put me vividly in mind of 
 a Geological ramble which I made, a few years since, in the 
 Isle of Wight. One day (it was at the commencement of 
 the Long Vacation), I sallied forth, with my knapsack on 
 my shoulder, and armed with a ponderous hammer, well 
 suited for the arduous duties which it had that day to per- 
 form. The weather was intensely hot, and the walk under 
 the chalk cliffs, and over the " pebbled shore," was calcu- 
 lated to damp the curious ardour even of a Sedgwick or a 
 Miller. But the excitement of a pursuit in which I was at 
 that time a novice served to bear me up against every 
 difficulty. Never shall I forget the heat and toil of that 
 memorable excursion ; compared with the labours whicli I 
 then underwent, the drudgery of a roadside stone-breaker 
 sinks into the merest pastime and amusement. But the 
 geological treasures which I collected made ample amends 
 for all my fatigue. My knapsack was soon filled ; and 
 with " many a longing lingering look behind" I quitted 
 reluctantly the scene of my pleasant labours. More than 
 once did I stop to rest, footsore and weary, on my journey 
 homewards, and was compelled on each occasion to 
 decrease the weight of my burden, by rejecting some 
 
 b2
 
 4 SHAKSPERE 
 
 choice fossil with which I had fondly hoped to enrich my 
 cabinet. 
 
 There is yet another circumstance in which Shakspere is 
 associated in my mind with the treasures of the Geological 
 world. As those fossil treasures are not discovered pure 
 and perfect, but debased by incrustations which are removed 
 only by the greatest skill and by the nicest caution, so it is 
 with Shakspere : The precious rarities which are disco- 
 verable in his works are unhappily often mingled with a 
 mass of extraneous and impure matter which somewhat 
 clouds the lustre of his gems, and, to a certain extent, 
 depreciates their value. But, be it remembered, that we are 
 considering the writings of a human author ; and he who 
 looks for perfection in any uninspired work must look for it 
 in vain. We present Shakspere as he is, with the same 
 faithful portraiture as he himself uses in every character 
 which he brings forward in his unrivalled delineations. 
 
 The brilliancy of inspired truth may have been dimmed 
 and obscured in some of the uninspired quotations which 
 appear in these pages, by the gross medium through which 
 it has passed ; the stream that flowed forth from the eternal 
 throne may have contracted impurities in its onward pro- 
 gress ; yet no one can call in question the divine soui'ce of 
 the light which illumines Shakspere's page, nor doubt the 
 origin of that current of thought " that with gentle murmur 
 glides" amid the flowery meads of Poetry and of Truth. 
 We can recognise in that vocal stream the sweet music of the 
 celestial spring, and detect the graceful flow and sweetness 
 of the songs of Zion, whose singers are silent in the dust, 
 but whose heavenly melodies will retain their freshness, 
 when Time and the memory of Shakspere shall bo no more. 
 
 We shall commence our Review of Shakspere's teaching
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 5 
 
 at the fountain-head and source of all wisdom and know- 
 ledge, and investigate the soundness of his opinion on the 
 Attributes and Moral Government of the Supreme Ruler of 
 all things in heaven and in earth ; and if on this point our 
 author is "found wanting"; if we discover that his teaching 
 does not exactly tally with that of the Inspired Word of 
 Truth, we are willing to allow, that, in spite of the praises 
 which have been lavished on him, there is not, in the true 
 and proper sense of the term, any light in him. 
 
 The God " from whom no secrets are hid" is addressed, 
 in the writings of Shakspere, as "the High AUseer."^ His 
 Justice also is recognised in the words : 
 
 " So just is God to right the innocent." — Richard III., i. 3. 
 
 While the Divine Mercy is brought forward to teach us 
 
 forgiveness, in the spirit of our blessed Lord's own words, 
 
 " Be ye merciful, as your Father who is in Heaven, is 
 
 merciful." 2 
 
 Alas ! Alas ! 
 Why all the souls that are, were forfeit once ; 
 And He that might the 'vantage best have took. 
 Found out the remedy. How would you be 
 If He, which is the top of judgment, should 
 But judge you as you are? O, think on that; 
 And mercy then will breathe within your lips 
 Like man new-made. — Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 
 
 Tlio' justice be thy plea, consider this : — 
 That in the course of justice none of us 
 Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ; 
 And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
 The deeds of mercy. — Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 
 
 To this just and merciful God Holy Scripture enjoins 
 and encourages us to commit our cause for impartial adju- 
 
 1 King Richard III., v. 1. - Luke, vi. 36.
 
 b SHAKSPERE 
 
 dication/ assuring us that He " regardeth not persons, nor 
 taketli reward."^ It furthermore warns us not to avenge 
 ourselves, hut to leave vengeance to Him to whom alone it 
 of rijjht belonars.^ Let us listen now to the teaching of 
 Shakspere : 
 
 Heaven is above all : there sits a Judije, 
 That no king can corrupt. — Henry VHI., iii. 1. 
 
 Heaven's is the quarrel ; for Heaven's substitute. 
 His deputy anointed in His sight/ 
 Hath caus'd his death ; the which, if wrongfully. 
 Let Heaven revenge. — Richard H., i. 3. 
 
 The Providence of God, exercised over the smallest, as 
 
 well as over the greatest affairs of life, is noticed by our 
 
 Poet almost in the very words of Holy Scripture. In " As 
 
 You Like It," at the affecting interview between Adam and 
 
 Orlando, the former addi-esses his master's brother in these 
 
 words : 
 
 I have five hundred crowns. 
 The thrifty hire I sav'd under your father 
 Which I did store, to be my foster-nurse 
 When service should in my old limbs lie lame 
 And unregarded age in corners thrown. 
 Take that ; and He that doth the ravens feed. 
 Yea, providently caters for the sparrow 
 Be comfort to my age. — ii . 3. 
 
 And in " Hamlet," v. 2, we are told, " that there is a 
 special providence in the fall of a sparrow." The coin- 
 cidence of these passages with Holy Scripture is too obvious 
 to need verification. 
 
 But neither in Shakspere, nor in the Bible, are we any- 
 where encouraged, by a blind and easy trust in Providence, 
 to relax our own efforts ; or to lay aside that energy of 
 action and prudence of circumspection, without which no 
 
 ^ Job, V. 8. "Deuteronomy, x. 17- ^ Romans, xii. 19. * 2 Samuel, i. 14.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 7 
 
 man is warranted in expecting success in life, or deliverance 
 from threatenino; dano-ers. 
 
 Miracles are ceas'd ; 
 And therefore we must needs admit the means 
 How things are perfected. — King Henry V., i. 1. 
 
 Life is everywhere represented to us as real and earnest ; 
 as a stage, on which each one among us has a part to per- 
 form ; as a stewardship in which faithfulness and diligence 
 must be exercised, and of which a strict and searching 
 account must be rendered, sooner or later, to the Lord of 
 the household. 
 
 If to do, were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels 
 had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. 
 
 Merchant of Venice, i. 2. 
 
 The means that heaven yields must be embrac'd 
 
 And not neglected ; else if heaven would 
 
 And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse 
 
 The proffer'd means of succour. — King Richard H., iii. 2. 
 
 We will not stand to prate ; 
 Talkers are no good doers ; be assur'd 
 We go to use our hands, and not our tongues. 
 
 King Richard HI., i. 3, 
 
 In the same way the Apostle S. Paul warned his 
 fellow-voyagers in the Shipwreck, that, unless they all 
 remained on board, they could not be saved ;* although he 
 had been distinctly assured by a heavenly messenger, that 
 none of the crew would be lost. But then, in order to 
 bring about their deliverance, human agency was required : 
 " the means that heaven yielded were embraced, and not 
 neglected." And thus both the crew and the vessel were 
 preserved. God's blessing followed the use of the appointed 
 means of deliverance. 
 
 Let us turn now to the important subject of Prayer. 
 
 * Acts, xxvii. 31.
 
 8 8HAKSPERE 
 
 Does the Bible condemn coldness in Prayer, and reprobate 
 the naock service of the lips while the heart takes no part 
 in the holy employment?^ Are wo there enjoined to pray 
 earnestly, to pray always, and not to faint I ^ How clearly 
 does our Poet echo the sentiments of the Inspired Volume. 
 
 My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. 
 
 Words without thoughts never to heaven go. — Hamlet, iii. 3. 
 
 When I would pray and think, 1 think and pray 
 To several subjects ; heaven hath my empty words 
 Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue. 
 Anchors on Isabel : heaven in my mouth. 
 And in my heart the strong and swelling evil 
 Of my conception. — Measure for Measure, ii. 4. 
 
 The Bible tells us, that " we know not what we should 
 pray for as we ought." ^ And in the beautiful prayer 
 ascribed to S. Chrysostom, convinced of " our ignorance in 
 asking," we pray for those things that are expedient * for us, 
 leaving it to the All-wise God to refuse, or to grant us our 
 petitions, " as seemeth best to His godly wisdom ;" for in 
 the words of the Poet — 
 
 We, ignorant of ourselves. 
 Beg often our own harms ; which the wise Powers 
 Deny us for our good : so find we profit 
 By losing of our prayers. — Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 1, 
 
 Who does not remember the fervent and passionate 
 Prayer of the barren Rachel, " Give me children or else I 
 die !" ^ and her premature death in bringing forth Benjamin 
 the child of her prayers, Be'&oni the child also of her 
 sorrow? Who can forget the prayer of the rebellious 
 Israelites, who, loathing the heaven-sent manna, asked of 
 God, that He would give them flesh to eat ? ^ God granted 
 
 ' Isaiah, xxix. 13. " Luke, xviii. I. ^ Romans, viii. 26. 
 ' Juv. Sat., X. 348, &c. * Genesis, xxxv. * Numbers, xi. 4.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 9 
 
 their prayer, but sent leanness withal into their souls. ^ So 
 true is it that God's anger is often shown in granting us 
 the request of our lips, and his love displayed, in with- 
 holding from us, what, if granted, would prove a curse 
 rather than a blessing^. 
 
 To the censorious and unforg-ivina: among men the Bible 
 and Shakspere speak in the same strain. 
 
 Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all.^ 
 
 Henry VI., Part II., iii. 3. 
 
 If, when you make your prayers, 
 
 God should be so obdurate as yourselves. 
 
 How would it fare with your departed souls ? ^ 
 
 Henry VI., Part II., iv. 7- 
 
 Another lesson which the Bible teaches us both by pre- 
 cept, and by example, is to be content with such things as 
 we have."* " Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek 
 them not." 5 The necessaries, rather than the superfluities 
 of life, are to form the legitimate subjects of our prayers. 
 The golden mediocrity, " neither poverty nor riches, but 
 food convenient for us,"^ is proposed to us, as that which, 
 as Christians, we may venture to pray for, and may strive, 
 by all honest means, to attain. Holy Scripture sets before 
 us the dangers which beset the lovers of this present world, 
 and warns us to beware of putting our trust in the uncer- 
 tainty of wealth. 7 
 
 So, in Shakspere, we are told, that 
 
 Our content 
 Is our best having. — King Henry VIII., ii. 3. 
 
 And that 
 
 'tis better to be lowly born. 
 And range with humble livers in content, 
 
 ' Psalm cvi. 15. ^ Matthew, vii. 1. ' Matthew, xviii. 23, &c. 
 
 * Hebrews, xiii. 5. ^ Jeremiah, xlv. ."). 
 
 ^ Proverbs, xxx. 8j Ecclus., xxix. 21, 23. ' 1 Timothy, vi. 17-
 
 10 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Than to be perk'd up in a glisterinor grief. 
 
 And wear a golden sorrow. — King Henry VIII., ii. 3. 
 
 And King Henry is introduced as saying, 
 
 My crown is in my heart ; not on my head : 
 Not deck'd with diamonds^ and Indian stones. 
 Nor to be seen ; my crown is called Content ; 
 A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy. 
 
 King Henry VI., Part III., iii. 1. 
 Again ; 
 
 They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them. 
 And if they fall they dash themselves to pieces. 
 
 King Richard III., i. 3. 
 
 Poor and content, is rich and rich enough. — Othello, iii. 3. 
 
 One quotation more (from the Mercliant of Venice, i. 2) 
 in praise of the golden mediocrity ; 
 
 For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much, as they 
 that starve with nothing : it is no mean happiness, therefore, to be seated 
 in the mean : superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency 
 lives longer. 
 
 So speaks Nerissa ; and Portia pronounces them to be 
 " good words ", And so they are, for they are founded 
 upon the general experience of the wisest of men, and are 
 endorsed by the words of Holy Scripture. 
 
 The teaching of Shakspere respecting Conscience is in 
 strict unison with that of Holy Scripture. He calls 
 
 A still and quiet conscience, a peace above all earthly dignities. 
 
 Winter's Tale, iii. 2. 
 
 What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted ? 
 Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just. 
 And he but naked, tho' lock'd up in steel. 
 Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted. 
 
 King Henry VI., iii. I. 
 
 " If our heart condemn us not," says S. John, " then 
 have wo confidence" ;' a confidence which those, and those 
 
 1 John, iii. 21.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 11 
 
 only, can possess, who have a conscience void of offence 
 towards God and towards man.' 
 
 The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul ! 
 
 King iRichard III., i. 3. 
 Cf. Isaiah, Ixvi. 24; Mark, ix. 44, 46, 48. 
 
 The instability of human life is proved by the hourly 
 experience of frail mortality ; and, wherever that subject is 
 touched upon in the Holy Scriptures, the Inspired Writers 
 compare the life of man to whatever is fleeting and transient 
 among the objects of nature, or fragile and perishable 
 among the works of art. It is likened to a shepherd's 
 tent, which is no sooner pitched than it is again removed 
 from its place.^ It is a handbreath, and vanity itself.^ 
 Man that is born of a woman is declared to come forth as a 
 flower, and to be cut down,'* and to flee as doth a shadow.^ 
 All flesh is as grass, which to day is, and to-morrow is cast 
 into the oven and burned.^ And what says our Poet ? 
 
 Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
 That struts and frets his hour upon the stage. 
 And then is heard no more : it is a tale 
 Told by an idiot ; full of sound and fury. 
 Signifying nothing. — Macbeth, v. 5. 
 
 Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale 
 
 Vexing the dull ears of a drowsy man. — King John, iii. 4. 
 
 Or, as we find it in " the Prayer of Moses, the man of 
 God;"7 "All our days are passed away in thy wrath; 
 we spend our years as a tale that is told. Thou carriest 
 man away with a flood ; they are as a sleep." 
 
 Revelation and daily experience alike teach us that our 
 life is made up of alternations of sorrow and of joy. That 
 
 * Acts, xxiv. 16. ^ Isaiah, xxxviii. 12. ^ Psalm xxxix. 5. 
 
 •* Job, xiv. 1, 2. 5 Isaiah, xl. 6. « Matthew, vi. 30. 
 
 ^ Psalm xc. 9.
 
 12 SHAKSPERE 
 
 from the hand of the Lord we receive both good and evil ; * 
 or, as Shakspere tells us, " The web of our life is of a 
 mingled yarn, good and ill together." ^ "God hath set 
 prosperity and adversity the one over against the other." ^ 
 
 The mutabihty of human prosperity is shown by a meta- 
 phor which is of frequent occurrence in the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures ; the growth and flourishing of a tree whose leaf 
 suddenly withereth, and whose fruit falleth. ■* 
 
 This is the state of man ; to-day he puts forth 
 The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms. 
 And bears his blushing honours thick upon him. 
 The third day comes a frost, a killing frost. 
 And — when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
 His greatness is a ripening, — nips his root. 
 And then he falls."— King Henry VHI., iii. 2. 
 
 Then was I as a tree. 
 Whose boughs did bend with fruit : but in one night 
 A storm, or robbery, call it what you will. 
 Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves. 
 And left me bare to weather. — Cymbeline, iii. 3. 
 
 Hence appears the necessity of the Apostle's warning to 
 the rich, that they should not trust in uncertain riches, the 
 natural tendency of prosperity being this, to engender in 
 the minds of its possessors an overweening confidence, and 
 to foster and encourage a false and groundless " security," 
 which, as our Poet tells us, " is mortal's chiefest enemy." 
 Macbeth, iii. 5. — And again: "Best safety lies in fear." 
 Hamlet, i. S. — So the Bible warns us : " Let him that 
 thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor. x. 12. 
 
 Poverty too, as well as riches, has its peculiar dangers 
 and inconveniences : " the oppressor's wrong, the proud 
 man's contumely," "the slings and arrows of outrageous 
 fortune," and the perils and fluctuations of a " sea of 
 troubles." Hamlet, iii. 1. 
 
 1 Job, ii. 10. - All's Well, iv. 3. ' Ecclesiastes, vii. 14. 
 * Psalm xxxvii. 35.
 
 WEIGHED IN THE EVEN BALANCE. 13 
 
 Yet, be it ever remembered, there is no necessary and 
 inevitable connexion between Poverty and unhappiness. 
 Distresses and misfortunes are sent from heaven.* Affliction 
 Cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring 
 forth out of the ground. ^ 
 
 Heaven has an end in all. — King Henry VHI., ii. 1. 
 
 It strikes where it doth love. — Othello, v. 2. 
 
 Sweet are the uses of Adversity, 
 Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous 
 Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.' 
 
 As You Like It, ii. 1. 
 Affliction has a task as sweet 
 As any cordial comfort.'' — Winter's Tale, v. 3. 
 
 By Adversity men are tested, as gold in the furnace ; 
 
 and refined as silver which has passed through the fire, 
 
 and been purged from its dross and impurity by the 
 
 searching trial. — Psalm Ixvi. 10 ; Zechariah, xiii. 9 ; 
 
 Ecclus., ii. 5. 
 
 The sea being smooth. 
 How many shallow bauble boats dare sail 
 Upon her patient breast, making their way 
 With those of nobler bulk? 
 But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage 
 The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold 
 The strong ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut. 
 Bounding between the two moist elements 
 Like Perseus' horse : Where's then the saucy boat. 
 Whose weakj untimber'd sides but even now 
 Co-rivall'd greatness ? Either to harbour fled. 
 Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so 
 Doth valour's show, and valour's worth divide 
 In storms of fortune : For in her ray and brightness. 
 The herd hath more annoyance by the brize 
 Than by the tiger : but when the sphtting wind 
 Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks. 
 And flies fled under shade, why, then, the thing of courage. 
 As rous'd with rage, with rage doth sympathize. 
 And, with an accent tun'd in selfsame key. 
 Returns to chiding fortune. — Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 
 
 1 Micah, vi. 9, &c. " Job, v. 6, 7- ^ Hebrews, xii. II. 
 ■» Psalm cxix, 71-
 
 14 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the 
 blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the 
 clearer revelation of God's favour. Yet even in the Old Testament, if 
 you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as 
 carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in 
 describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon, Pros- 
 perity is not without many fears and distastes ; and adversity is not 
 without comforts and hopes. We see in needleworks and embroideries, 
 it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, 
 than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground : 
 judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the 
 eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they 
 are incensed, or crushed ; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but 
 adversity doth best discover virtue. — Bacon's Essays. 
 
 Amid the thorns and "briars of this working-day world" ^ 
 there is nothing which is so well calculated to smooth the 
 roughness of our path, as the loving sympathy of a friend, 
 who will rejoice with us when we rejoice, and weep with us 
 when we weep,^ a friend who " loveth at all times."^ " The 
 communicating of a man's self to his friend (says Bacon *) 
 works two contrary effects ; for it redoubleth joys, and 
 cutteth griefs in halves; for there is no man that imparteth 
 his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more ; and no man 
 that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the 
 less."^ Now hear Shakspere : 
 
 Sad souls are slain in merry company ; 
 
 Grief best is pleas'd with grief's society. — Rape of Lucrece. 
 
 Bind up those tresses : O, what love I note 
 In the fair multitude of those her hairs ! 
 Where but by chance a silver drop has fallen, 
 Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends 
 Do glew themselves in sociable grief; 
 Like true, inseparable, faithful loves. 
 Sticking together in calamity. — King John, iii. 4. 
 
 The grief that doth not speak 
 Whispers the o'erfraught heart and bids it break. 
 
 Macbeth, iv, 3. 
 
 ' As You Like It, i. 3. - Romans, xii. 15. ^ Proverbs, xvii. 17. 
 ' Essay xxvii. » Cf. Cic. de A., vi. 22. 
 
 ■*«
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 15 
 
 As says the Psalmist; "My heart was hot within me, 
 while I was musing the fire burned : then spake I with my 
 tonirue." ^ 
 
 You do^ surely^ but bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny 
 your griefs to your friend. — Hamlet, iii. 2. 
 
 Fellowship in woe doth woe assuage. 
 
 As palmers' chat makes short their pilgrimage. 
 
 Rape of Lucrece. 
 
 Wish me partaker in thy happiness. 
 
 When thou dost meet good hap ; and, in thy danger. 
 
 If ever danger do environ thee. 
 
 Commend thy grievance to my holy prayers. 
 
 For I will be thy beadsman. — Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1. 
 
 But in selectinc; our friends, there is need of the greatest 
 caution ; for, as Shakspere has it, "It is certain that 
 either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught, as men 
 take diseases, one of another : therefore, let men take heed 
 of their company." ^ This is precisely what is taught us 
 everywhere in the Bible,^ and especially by S. Paul, when 
 he tells us that " evil communications corrupt good man- 
 ners." * 
 
 Now just as we may safely affirm that it is a " miserable 
 solitude" to want true friends, so may we unhesitatingly 
 pronounce it to be the summit of misfortune, to be sur- 
 rounded by false and hollow friends, who fall away in the 
 time of our calamity, and, as rats are said to quit a falling 
 house, forsake us in our utmost need. 
 
 Where you are liberal of your loves, and counsels 
 
 Be sure, you be not loose ; for those you make your friends, 
 
 ' Psalm xxxix. 3. " King Henry IV., Part II., v, 1. 
 
 ^ Proverbs, xxii. 24, 25. * 1 Corinthians, xv. 33.
 
 16 SHAKSPERE 
 
 And give your hearts to, when they once perceive 
 
 The least rub in your fortunes, fall away 
 
 Like water from ye, never found again 
 
 But where they mean to sink ye. — King Henry VIII., ii. 1. 
 
 Than such friends as these, even an open and avowed 
 enemy is far better. So doubtless thought David, when he 
 said, " It was not an enemy that reproached me . . . but it 
 was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaint- 
 ance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked into 
 the house of God in company."^ 
 
 When love begins to sicken and decay. 
 It usetb an enforced ceremony. 
 There are no tricks in plain and simple faith ; 
 But hollow men, like horses hot at hand. 
 Make gallant show and promise of their mettle. 
 But when they should endure the bloody spur. 
 They fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades, 
 Sink in the trial. — Julius Caesar, iv. 1, 
 
 Such was the character of the friends of the afflicted Job : 
 they were men, who, in the time of his distress, " dealt 
 'deceitfully as a brook ; and as the stream of brooks they 
 passed away ; which are blackish by reason of the ice, and 
 wherein the snow is hid : what time they wax warm, they 
 vanish : when it is hot, they are consumed out of their 
 place." 2_Cf. Ecclus., xxii. 20. 
 
 Our Poet has aptly described such characters in " Much 
 
 Ado about Nothing," v. 1. 
 
 Men 
 Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief. 
 Which they themselves not feel ; but tasting it 
 Their counsel turns to passion, which before 
 Would give preceptial medicine to rage. 
 Fetter strong madness in a silken thread. 
 Charm ache with air, and agony with words ; 
 No, no ; 'tis all men's office to speak patience, 
 
 1 Psalm Iv. 12, &c. ' Job, vi. 15, &c.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 17 
 
 But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency. 
 To be so moral, when he shall endure 
 The like himself. 
 
 And in another place, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2— 
 He jests at scars that never felt a wound. 
 
 The patient man of Uz remonstrated with the " miser- 
 able comforters" ^ who mocked rather than eased his suffer- 
 ings, and showed them in what way true friends ought to 
 have acted under the doleM circumstances in which they 
 found him. " I also could speak as ye do ; if your soul 
 were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you 
 and shake mine head at you. But I would strengthen you 
 with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage 
 your grief." — Job, xvi. 4-6. 
 
 Had you such a loss as T, 
 I could give better comfort than you do. — King John, iii. 4. 
 
 Shakspere supplies us with a golden rule which bears 
 upon and regulates the question of the offices of Friendship. 
 
 Never anything can be amiss. 
 When simpleness and duty tender it. 
 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. 
 
 If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man 
 hath, and not according to that he hath not. — 2 Cor., viii. 12. 
 
 The Poet tells us, that " a friend should bear his friend's 
 infirmities, and not make them greater than they are ;"2 
 and that "it is not meet that every nice offence should bear 
 his comment." Julius Csesar, iv. 3. — What sentiments 
 could be in better keeping with the scriptural injunction 
 that the strong should bear the infirmities of the weak ? ^ 
 
 1 Job, xvi. 2. "^ Cf. Proverbs, xvii. 17- "* Romans, xv. 1. 
 
 C
 
 ] 8 SHAKSPERE 
 
 and that we should bear one another's burdens, and so 
 fulfil the law of Christ,^ fo reaving one another if any man 
 have a quarrel against any,^ even as God, for Christ's sake, 
 has freely forgiven us. What if God should so deal with 
 us that " every nice offence should bear his comment " 2 
 Who among us should escape the penalty of his sins ? But 
 our Heavenly Father (Blessed be His name !) is not 
 extreme to "mark iniquities";^ if He were, none could 
 stand in His si^ht. He knoweth whereof we are made, 
 He remembereth that we are but dust ;^ or, to employ the 
 language of Shakspere ; 
 
 We are all men, in our own natures frail. — King Henry VTII., v. 2. 
 
 Many are the places in Holy Scripture, and in Shaks- 
 pere, where the evil consequences of envy and strife are set 
 forth, and where the necessity of a due subordination of 
 inferiors to existing powers is forcibly inculcated. 
 
 Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.^ 
 
 How, in one bouse. 
 Should many people, under two commands 
 Hold amity ? ^ — King Lear, ii. 4. 
 
 Again ; 
 
 I always thought 
 It was botli impious and unnatural 
 That such immanity and bloody strife 
 Should reign among professorsof one FaithJ 
 
 King Henry VI., Part I., v. 1. 
 
 'Tis much when sceptres are in children's hands ; 
 But more, when Envy breeds unkind division. 
 There comes the ruin — there begins confusion. 
 
 Ibid., iv. 1. 
 
 ' Galatians, vi. 2. - Colossiaus, iii. 13. ^ Psalm cxxx. 3. 
 
 * Psalm ciii. 14. * James, iii. 16. ^ Matthew, xii. 25. 
 
 ^ James, iv. 1.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 19 
 
 Here there is a clear and double echo from the word of 
 
 Truth. We hear the voice of Solomon crying " Woe to 
 
 thee, land, when thy king is a child "j^ and the warning 
 
 declaration of S. James, who associates envying and strife 
 
 with ruin and confusion. 
 
 Again ; 
 
 Let them obey that know not liow to rule. 
 
 King Henry VI., Part 11., v. 1. 
 
 The grand duty inculcated both by the Apostle S. Paul 
 and by Shakspere is submission to Authority. " Order is 
 Heaven's first law," a law by which " some are and must 
 be greater than the rest." ^ 
 
 Let us hear how Shakspere carries out this thought. 
 
 When that the general is not like the hive. 
 
 To whom the foragers shall all repair. 
 
 What honey is expected ? Degree being vizarded. 
 
 The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. 
 
 The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre. 
 
 Observe degree, priority, and place, 
 
 Insisture, course, proportion, season, form. 
 
 Office, and custom, in all line of order : 
 
 And therefore is the glorious planet, Sol, 
 
 In noble eminence enthron'd and spher'd 
 
 Amidst the other ; whose med'cinable eye 
 
 Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil. 
 
 And posts, like the commandment of a king. 
 
 Sans check, to good and bad : But, when the planets. 
 
 In evil mixture, to disorder wander. 
 
 What plagues and what portents ! what mutiny ! 
 
 What raging of the sea ! shaking of earth 1 
 
 Commotion in the winds ! fights, changes, horrors. 
 
 Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 
 
 The unity and married calm of states 
 
 Quite from their fixture! O, when degree is shaked 
 
 Which is the ladder of all high designs. 
 
 The enterprise is sick 1 How could communities. 
 
 Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities, 
 
 Peaceful commerce from dividable shores. 
 
 The primogenitive and due of birth. 
 
 Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels, 
 
 ' Ecclesiastes, x. 16. - Pope's Essay on Man. 
 
 c2
 
 20 SHAKSPERE 
 
 But by degree, stand in authentic place? 
 Take but degree away, untune that string. 
 And, hark, what discord follows ! each thing meets 
 In mere oppugnancy : the bounded waters 
 Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores. 
 And make a sop of all this solid globe : 
 Strength should be lord of imbecillity. 
 And the rude son should strike his father dead : 
 Force should be right ; or rather, right and wrong 
 (Between whose endless jar justice resides) 
 Should lose their names, and so should justice too. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, i. 3. 
 
 According to tlie Apostolic rule, all things should be 
 done " decently," 1 i.e. fittingly "and in order,*" and that 
 they may be done " decently," they must be done " in 
 order." The " maiiT/ members"^ are to act together with a 
 single eye to the welfare and prosperity of the " one body.'''' 
 This unity of action is indispensably requisite, both in the 
 body spiritual and in the body politic. 
 
 Livy, the Roman Historian, has handed down to us an 
 Apologue which was spoken by Menenius Agrippa to the 
 popular seceders.' This Apologue Shakspere has given us 
 in his " Coriolanus." " In those days," says the Historian, 
 " when all was not at unity, as now, in man, but every 
 member had its own plans and its own language, the other 
 members became quite indignant that they should all toil 
 and labour for the belly, while it remained at its ease in the 
 midst of them, doing nothing, but enjoying itself. They 
 therefore agreed among themselves, that the hands should 
 not convey any food to the mouth, nor the mouth receive it, 
 nor the teeth chew it. But while they thus thought to 
 starve the belly out, they found themselves and the whole 
 body reduced to the most deplorable state of feebleness, 
 and they then saw that the belly is by no means useless ; 
 
 * 1 Corinthians, xiv. 40. '■^ 1 Corinthians, xii. 12, &c. 
 
 3 Hist. Lib., II. cap. xxxii.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 21 
 
 that it gives as well as receives nourishment, distributing to 
 all parts of the body the means of life and health." 
 
 The moral of the story is so good and sci'iptural, and the 
 strain in which Shakspere gives it so lively and humorous, 
 that I shall be pardoned for quoting the entire passage. . 
 
 The speakers are Menenius and a discontented citizen. 
 
 Meneniiis. I shall tell you 
 
 A pretty tale ; it may be, you have heard it ; 
 But, since it serves ray purpose, I will venture 
 To scale 't a little more. 
 
 Citizeii. Well 
 
 I'll hear it. Sir ; yet you must not think 
 To fob off our disgraces with a tale. 
 But, an't please you, deliver. 
 
 Men. There was a time, when all the body's members 
 Rebell'd against the belly ; thus accus'd it : — 
 That only like a gulf it did remain 
 r the midst o' the body, idle and inactive. 
 Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing 
 Like labour with the rest ; where th' other instruments 
 Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel. 
 And mutually participate ; did minister 
 Unto the appetite and affection common 
 Of the whole body. The belly answered — 
 
 Cit. Well, sir, what answer made the belly ? 
 
 Men. Sir, I shall tell you. — With a kind of smile, 
 (For, look you, I may make the belly smile. 
 As well as speak) it tauntingly rephed 
 T'the discontented members, the mutinous parts 
 That envied his receipt ; even so most fitly 
 As you malign our senators, for that 
 They are not such as you. 
 
 Cit. Your belly's answer ? what ! 
 The kingly crowned head, the vigilant eye. 
 The counsellor heart, the arm our soldier. 
 Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter. 
 In this our fabric, if that they — 
 
 Men. What then ? — 
 
 'Fore me this fellow speaks ! What then ? what then ? 
 
 Cit. Should by the cormorant belly be restrain'd 
 Who is the sink o' the body — 
 
 Men. Well what then ? 
 
 Cit. The former agents, if they did complain. 
 What could the belly answer? 
 
 Men. I will tell you. 
 
 If you'll bestow a small (of what you have little) 
 Patience, awhile, you'll hear the belly's answer.
 
 22 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Cit. Y'are long about it. 
 
 Men. Note me this^ good frieud. 
 
 Your most grave belly was deliberate. 
 Not rash, like his accusers, and thus answer'd. 
 " True is it, my incorporate friends," quoth he, 
 " That I receive the general food at first. 
 Which you do live upon ; and fit it is ; 
 Because I am the storehouse, and the shop 
 Of the whole body : but, if you do remember, 
 I send it thro' the rivers of your blood. 
 Even to the court, the heart, the senate, brain ; 
 And through the ranks and offices of man : 
 The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins. 
 From me receive that natural competency 
 Whereby they live. And tho' that all at once 
 You, my good friends" — (this says the belly, mark me) — 
 
 Cit. Ay sir ; well: well. 
 
 Men. " Tho' all at once cannot 
 
 See what I do deliver out to each ; 
 Yet I can make my audit up, that all 
 From me do back receive the flour of all. 
 And leave me but the bran." What say you to't? 
 
 Cil. It was an answer. Coriolanus, i, 1. 
 
 Menenius then proceeds to apply the Apologue to the 
 case of the senators, and of the mutinous members of the 
 Roman state ; and to show that there was no benefit which 
 the latter received, but it was derived to them from the 
 liighcr Powers, whom they foolishly imagined to be living 
 in a state of idle inaction and profitless enjoyment. 
 
 Connected with the Moral Teaching of the Divine 
 Founder of our Religion, there is a striking peculiarity, 
 which proves at once his immeasurable superiority over all 
 the moral teachers, whether Jewish or Pagan, who had 
 preceded Him, The nature of man is fallen and depraved — 
 ever averse from good, and continually lusting after evil. 
 If then we would live unaffected by the turbulent disorders, 
 which follow upon sensual indulgence, our natural pro- 
 pensities must be subjected to timely and proper regulation. 
 But wliere is the check to be placed ? Is the heart of man 
 free to run riot amonii' tho extravagancies of unchaste
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 23 
 
 desires, provided only that no overt act of sin is admitted, 
 no outward act of guilt allowed to obtain the dominion 
 over us ? Our Blessed Lord meets the difficulty, and places 
 the check, where alone it should be placed, on the heart ; ^ 
 He (for He knows what is in man) nips sin in the bud j^ He 
 lays the axe to the very root of the tree. With Him 
 heart-purity is everything. To make the fruit good. He 
 aims at first making good the tree. He follows the polluted 
 and bitter stream up to its very source,^ and there throws 
 in the salt of Divine Grace, and straightway the waters are 
 purified and sweetened. " All things are naked and opened 
 unto the eyes"^ of the Great Searcher, who discerns the 
 thoughts and intents of the human heart. He it is who 
 knoweth our downsitting, and our uprising, and under- 
 standeth our thou2:hts afar ofi".^ 
 
 " Between the acting of a dreadful thing and the first 
 motion" (I am quoting from our Poet) "all the interim"^ is 
 known to Him. Sin has its source and origin in the 
 thoughts, and if unchecked there, will gradually and almost 
 imperceptibly, attain to its full growth, and develope itself 
 in violent and unrestrained action. 
 
 Great floods have flown 
 From simple sources. All's well, ii. 1. 
 
 Lust, when it hath conceived brinj^eth forth sin, and sin when it is 
 finished bringeth forth death.' 
 
 Shakspere introduces Brutus employing a very lively and 
 forcible figure, in order to set forth the danger that would 
 ensue, if Caesar were allowed to bring his ambitious thoughts 
 
 ' Cf. Proverbs, xxiv. 9. ^ Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24. ' 2 Kings, ii. 21. 
 
 ■* Hebrev\s, iv. 13. ' Psalm cxxxix. 2. '' Julius C*sar, ii. 1. 
 
 ' James, i. 15.
 
 24 SHAKSPERE 
 
 to maturity ; and tlie same figure is made use of by the 
 Propliet Isaiah, with a reference to the gradual progress of 
 sin and the necessity of crushing it at an early stage.* 
 
 Fashion it thus ; tliat what he \s, augmented 
 
 Would run to these, and these extremities; 
 
 And therefore think him as a serpent's egg. 
 
 Which hatch'd, would as his kind, grow mischievous. 
 
 And kill him in the shell. Julius Csesar, ii. 1. 
 
 A little fire is quickly trodden out ; 
 
 Which being suffer'd, rivers cannot quench.^ 
 
 Henry VI., Part III., iv. 8. 
 
 As King Lear would fain have done in the case of his 
 " thankless child"' ^ Regan, so must the moralist do. He 
 must "anatomize" skilfully, and " see Avhat breeds about 
 the heart : " and then, and not till then, will he be able (in 
 the words of Shakspere) to do something more than 
 
 Skin and film the ulcerous place : 
 
 While rank corruption, mining all within. 
 
 Infects unseen. Hamlet, iii. 4. 
 
 The thought in the heart, from which, as the Bible and 
 Shakspere tell us, " all offences come,"^ gives birth to 
 the act ; and his mind alone is pure and unspotted, in 
 which no evil thought, like a traitor in the camp, is lodged 
 and entertained. And so we find Rosalind protesting to 
 her uncle the Duke Frederick, her perfect innocence, in the 
 following words : 
 
 If with myself I hold intelligence. 
 
 Or have acquaintance with mine own desires. 
 
 If that I do not ilream, or be not frantic 
 
 (As I do trust I am not) then, dear uncle. 
 
 Never so much as in a thought unborn 
 
 Did I oflJ'end your highness. — As You Like It, i. 3. 
 
 * Isaiah, lix. 5. ^ James, iii. 5. ^ iii. 6. ^ Matthew, xv. 19.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 
 
 And SO speaks Hubert when suspected of the murder of 
 
 Arthur. 
 
 If I in act, consent, or sin of thought 
 Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath 
 Which was embounded in this beauteous clay. 
 Let hell want pains enough to torture me ! 
 
 King John, iv. 3. 
 
 But it is in " Macbeth" that our Poet displays his won- 
 derful and intimate acquaintance with the dark, subtle, and 
 orradual workings of the human heart. It is there that he 
 depicts with so masterly a hand, the several stages in 
 Macbeth's downward pi'ogress ; from the moment when 
 he first conceives the murderous thought of " taking off" 
 Duncan, to the actual perpetration of the bloody deed. 
 When the wicked thought first springs up in his mind, the 
 projected crime appears before him in all its gross and 
 naked deformity ; aggravated moreover by the fact that he 
 was the victim's " kinsman and his subject, strong both 
 against the deed ; then, as his host, " who should against 
 his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife himself," ^ 
 He had then " no spur to prick the sides of his intent, but 
 only vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself, and falls on 
 the other." His wicked thought had as yet assumed no 
 definite shape ; " the murder yet was but fantastical." 
 (i. 1.) A fierce internal struggle between the powers of 
 2:ood and of evil was being carried on in the hidden recesses 
 of his heart. 
 
 Between the acting of a dreadful thing 
 
 And the first motion, all the interim is 
 
 Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream. 
 
 The genius and the mortal instruments 
 
 Are then in council ; and the state of a man. 
 
 Like to a little kingdom, suffers then 
 
 The nature of an insurrection.- — Julius Caesar, ii. \. 
 
 ' i. 7- ^ Cf. Romans, vii. 23 ; Galatians, v. 17-
 
 26 SHAKSPERE 
 
 A short time before Macbeth had said : 
 
 Why do I yield to that sup:sestion 
 Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair. 
 And make my seated heart knock at my ribs 
 Against the use of nature?' — i. ]. 
 
 We noio see him advanced a step further on his frightful 
 
 career : 
 
 The time has been, my senses would have cool'd 
 To hear a night shriek ; and my fell of hair 
 Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir 
 As life were in't : I have supped full of horrors ; 
 Direness familiar to my slaughterous thoughts 
 Cannot once start me. 
 
 But here I will pause ; a few detached and isolated 
 extracts from this marvellous production of Shakspere's 
 genius can no more convey a just and adequate conception 
 of its awful teaching, than a few bricks could be produced 
 as a fair sample and specimen of a gorgeous building. I 
 would rather recommend the reader carefully (I will not 
 say to peruse, but) to study the Tragedy of Macbeth, and 
 in connection with it, the History of the Prophet Balaam 
 contained in the Book of Numbers. The points of resem- 
 blance between the moral character of Macbeth and that 
 of Balaam, are very marked and striking. The history of 
 both of them will teach us the same lesson ; and the 
 importance of that lesson it is impossible to over-estimate 
 or exaijgerate. 
 
 I shall now proceed to compare the sentiments of Shak- 
 spere with the teaching of Holy Scripture on a subject of 
 very great importance — on Marriage. And first we will 
 consider the light in which that solemn contract is repre- 
 sented in the Bible. The Apostle S. Paul,^ in speaking 
 
 ' Job, iv. 15, 16. - Ephesians, v, 32.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 27 
 
 on the subject of Marriage, connects it with the love of 
 Christ for His Church ; and of this love he tells us that 
 marriage is a fitting type and emblem. Hence he takes 
 occasion to enforce (and what higher ground could he take 
 for the precept ?) the duty of the husband to love, nourish 
 and cherish his wife ; and the corresponding obligation of 
 the wife, to reverence and to obey her husband. He tells 
 us that the husband is the head of the wife ; ^ and S. Peter 
 directs the husband to give honour to the wife as unto the 
 weaker vessel : ^ a man is to leave his father, and his 
 mother, and to concentrate his aft'ections on the new and 
 endearing relationship into which he has entered. 
 
 Such is the scriptural account of the duties of the mar- 
 ried state ; such is the tenor of 
 
 The contract of eternal bond of love, 
 Confirm'd by mutual joinder of the hands. 
 Attested by the holy close of lips, 
 Strengthen'd by interchangement of the rings. 
 
 Twelfth Night, v. 1. 
 
 In these sad and degenerate days, it is much to be feared 
 that Marriage is too often regarded, not in the light of a 
 solemn and religious ordinance of God, but of a merely 
 civil contract which may be ratified and confirmed as fitly 
 in the office of the Registrar, as in the sanctuary of God : ^ 
 it seems to be too often considered a mere stratagem of 
 worldly policy ; a frigid and formal joining of the hands, 
 where there is no warm union of the hearts ; in short, little 
 if anything more than a commercial speculation. 
 
 The hearts of old gave hands. 
 But our new heraldry is — hands not hearts. — Othello, iii. 4. 
 
 1 Ephesians, v. 23. - 1 Peter, iii. 7. 
 
 ^ Get you to church, and have a good priest that can tell you what 
 marriage is : this rellovv will but join you together as they join wainscot. 
 — As You Like It, iii. 3.
 
 28 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Unions such as these can be productive only of jars and 
 contentions. Surely (to speak in the words of Shak- 
 spere) — 
 
 Marriage is a matter of more worth 
 Than to be dealt in by attorneyship. 
 For what is wedlock forced^ but a hell ? 
 An age of discord, and continual strife? 
 Whereas the contrary bringeth forth bliss. 
 And is a pattern of celestial peace. 
 
 King Henry VI., Part I., v. 5. 
 
 God the best maker of all marriages. 
 
 Combine your hearts in one!— 'King Henry V., v. 2. 
 
 Whose love was of that dignity. 
 That it went hand in hand even with the vow 
 1 made to her in marriage. — Hamlet, i. 5. 
 
 That marriages may he happy and prosperous, there 
 should be (as Shakspere has it) " no misgraffing in respect 
 of years,"" neither should they stand " upon the choice of 
 friends ;" but there should be " a sympathy in choice," if 
 " the course of true love" is expected to " run smooth." — 
 Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1. 
 
 Let us hear our Poet's comment (as it were) upon a 
 passage which we have already quoted from Holy Scrip- 
 ture : 
 
 IVIy noble father, 
 
 I do perceive here a divided duty : 
 
 My life and education both do learn me 
 
 How to respect you ; you are the lord of duty ; 
 
 I am hitherto your daughter ; but, here's my husband ; 
 
 And so much duty as my mother show'd 
 
 To you, preferring you before her father. 
 
 So much I challenge that I may profess 
 
 Due to the Moor, my lord. — Othello, i. 3. 
 
 Again : 
 
 Such duty as the subject owes the prince, 
 Even such a woman oweth to her husband : 
 And when she's frovvard, peevish, sullen, sour. 
 And not obedient to his honest will. 
 What is she, but a foul contending rebel. 
 And graceless traitor to her loving lord? 
 
 Taming of the Shrew, v. 2.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 29 
 
 Thy husband is thy lord^ thy life, thy keeper. 
 Thy head, thy sovereign ; one that cares for thee. 
 And for thy maintenance : commits his body 
 To painful labours, both by sea and land. 
 To watch the night in storms, the day in cold. 
 While thou liest warm at home, secure and safe. 
 And craves no other tribute at thy hands. 
 But love, fair looks, and true obedience. 
 
 Ibid. 
 And again : 
 
 I am asham'd, that women are so simple 
 To offer war, where they should sue for peace ; 
 Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway. 
 When they are bound to serve, love, and obey. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 I must crave pardon from my readers of the fair sex for 
 having introduced these passages, though I hope and trust 
 that but few among them would hesitate to endorse the 
 sentiments therein contained. I now turn to the other 
 side of the picture, and shall find no difficulty in showing 
 that Shakspere never loses sight of the fact, before noticed, 
 that the duties of husband and of wife are reciprocal. The 
 Apostle has told us that the husband is bound to show 
 " honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel." How 
 does this agree, ye sullen and morose husbands, with your 
 uniform cheerfulness abroad, when compared with your 
 gloomy and provoking taciturnity at home? The wife, "by 
 the right and virtue of her place," ought to share in your 
 joys and to participate in your sorrows. Hear Shakspere : 
 
 Within the bond of marriage, tell me, Brutus, 
 
 Is it excepted, I should know no secrets 
 
 That appertain to you ? Am I yourself 
 
 But as it were on sort, or limitation. 
 
 To keep with you at meals, comfort your bed. 
 
 And talk to you sometimes ? Dwell I but in the suburbs 
 
 Of your good pleasure? — Juhus Caesar, ii. 1. 
 
 Some heavy business hath my lord in hand. 
 And I must know it, else he loves me not. 
 
 King Henry IV., Part I., ii. 3.
 
 30 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Dear to you should your wife be "as are the ruddy 
 drops that visit your heart." Fear not to pour into her 
 bosom the secrets of your soul. And when perchance she 
 finds you, as the noble Portia found her husband Brutus, 
 
 Musing and sighing, with your arms across, 
 
 and asks you what ails you. 
 
 Stare not upon her with ungentle looks 
 Nor with an angry wafture of your hand 
 Give sign for her to leave you. 
 
 Possibly she may do so, 
 
 Fearing to strengthen your impatience 
 
 Which sometimes hath his hour with every man. 
 
 But rather 
 
 Make her acquainted with your cause of grief, 
 
 for it is in her power to comfort your wounded spirit ; she 
 can administer (if any can do so) the balm of consolation 
 to a saddened heart, with whose bitterness it is no stranger 
 that desires to intermeddle, but one, remember, to whom 
 you owe your unreserved confidence,' 
 
 By all your vows of love, and that great vow 
 
 Which did incorporate and make you one. — Julius Caesar, ii. 1. 
 
 I shall now proceed to set before the reader, side by 
 side, the statements of the Holy Scripture, and of Shak- 
 spere, on the subject of Man : and I think we shall dis- 
 cover that, both by the Inspired Writers, and by our Poet, 
 man is represented in a twofold light : as created originally 
 in the image and likeness of God, and as fallen from his 
 pristine greatness into a state of lowliness and degradation ; 
 a state, however, in which he possesses still some clear and 
 
 1 Proverbs, xiv. 10.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 31 
 
 distinct marks of his heavenly origin ; — some manifest 
 proofs of that integrity which belonged to him before he 
 " sought out" the " many inventions" which a fallen incli- 
 nation readily suggested," When we consider what he once 
 was— we are ready to exclaim with the lamentation of 
 Jeremiah : " How is the gold become dim ! how is the 
 most fine gold changed ! " ^ Yet, even as man now is, we 
 behold him as a beautiful temple — beautiful, though in 
 ruins ; a temple, whose massive columns, exquisite though 
 prostrate, bear witness to the glory that must have sur- 
 rounded the building when first completed by the Divine 
 Architect. Holy Scripture represents man as " made a 
 little lower than the angels, and crowned with glory and 
 honour;"^ as possessed of those faculties and perceptions, 
 which raise him far above the level of the " beasts that 
 perish." * Reason, that bright scintillation from the efful- 
 gence of the Creator, still serves, even in its present 
 crippled state, and shorn of its fairest beams, to conduct 
 man, to some extent, safely amid the thorny mazes of life. 
 And the view which our Poet takes of man, exactly coin- 
 cides with that which is given us in the Inspired Volume : 
 while he recognises the awful fact that " all the souls that 
 are were forfeit once ;" and mentions the transgression of 
 Adam our first parent ; still, viewing man as he is, imper- 
 fect and fallen, he exclaims: "What a piece of work is 
 man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in 
 action how like an angel ! in apprehension how like a god ! 
 the beauty of the world ! the paragon of animals ! " — 
 Hamlet, ii., 1. 
 
 Ecclesiastes, vii. 29. - Lamentations, iv. 1. 
 
 ^ Psalm viii. 5. * Ecclesiastes, iii. 21.
 
 32 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Man being the " offspring of God," ' as the Scripture 
 informs us, is in duty bound to think and to act at all 
 times with a reference to the realities of a future existence. 
 His chief end is to glorify God, and to employ all the 
 faculties of his mind, in the service of Him who has 
 endowed him with so excellent gifts. No man, therefore, if 
 he truly realizes his proper position among the animate 
 creatures of God, will venture to think only, or chiefly, of 
 the pleasures and enjoyments of the present life. 
 
 What is man 
 If his chief good, and market of his time 
 Be but to sleep and feed ? a beast, no more. 
 Sure, He, that made us with such large discourse. 
 Looking before and after, gave us not 
 That capability and godlike reason 
 To fust in us unused. — Hamlet, iv. 4. 
 
 It is the province of Eeason, to deter men from the 
 commission of sins which degrade and debase them to the 
 state of mere animals : among these sins may be reckoned 
 not only gluttony and winebibbing, but other indulgences 
 also, which do not, at first sight, appear so gross and 
 polluting. 
 
 O that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to steal away their 
 brains! that we should with joy, revel, pleasure and applause, trans- 
 form ourselves into beasts. — Othello, ii. 3. 
 
 Here, I think, it is unnecessary to produce parallels from 
 the Scriptures to prove the coincidence of their teaching 
 with that of the Poet, on the debasing nature of all exces- 
 sive pleasure, and exorbitant indulgence ; for I doubt not 
 that many passages will at once suggest themselves to the 
 mind of the reader. 
 
 It is Shakspere who admonishes us to " quench the fire 
 
 » Acts, xvii. 28.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 33 
 
 of passion with the sap of reason" (King Henry VIII. , 
 i. 1); and who assures us, that "■ if the balance of our lives 
 had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, 
 the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to 
 most preposterous conclusions."" — Othello, i. 3. 
 It is he who asks : 
 
 Is your blood 
 So madly hot, that no discourse of reason 
 Can qualify the same ? — Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2.. 
 
 It is the very same principle of our common nature to 
 which the Apostle appeals, when he says ; "I speak as 
 unto wise men, judge ye what I say."^ It was to it that 
 Elijah appealed, when he cried ; " If the Lord be God, 
 follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him ;''''2 and it is only 
 when Reason's edge has become blunted by Passion and 
 Self-will, that man lapses into every moral and religious 
 error that can debase his life, or cloud his spiritual percep- 
 tions. 
 
 The next point to which I shall direct attention, is the 
 fact, that sin is represented, both in Scripture, and in 
 Shakspere, as having a natural tendency to propagate 
 itself: that one sin never stands alone ; but like the stone 
 cast into the water, forms innumerable and ever-enlarging 
 disturbances, which are all of them due to the first throw* 
 which disorders the smooth surface of the soul, and circu- 
 lates in every direction. Vices, like virtues, ever go in 
 company. "Evil men," the Bible tells us, "grow worse 
 and worse." ^ No man can say to the tide of wickedness, 
 "hitherto shalt thou come and no further; and here shall 
 thy proud waves be stayed."* 
 
 ^ 1 Corinthians, x. 15. ^ 1 Kings, xviii. 21. 
 
 ' 2 Timothy, iii. 13. * Job, xxxviii. 11.
 
 34 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Sin will pluck on sin. — King Richard III., iv. 2. 
 One sin dotli provoke another. 
 
 " The multiplying villanies of Nature do swarm upon 
 him" who indulges in any one of them. — Macbeth, i. 1. 
 
 There is another truth, which is equally clear from the 
 Bible, and from our Author, and also from what we daily 
 see taking place around us. It is this ; that mischief is 
 sure to return upon the head of the man who conceives it, 
 and that into the pit which he has dug for another he falls 
 himself.^ The ten brethren, the sons of Jacob, crouch for 
 a morsel of bread before the lord of Egypt, whom they had 
 themselves sold into slavery ; and they acknowledge, in the 
 day of their calamity, that their distress and tribulation 
 had come upon them in consequence of their cruelty to 
 Joseph ;2 — because that when they saw the anguish of his 
 soul, they would not listen to his voice. Then it was that 
 Reuben might have remonstrated with his brethren in the 
 very words of Shakspere : 
 
 I told ye all. 
 When we first put this dangerous stone a rolling, 
 'Twould fall upon ourselves.^ — King Henry VIII., v. 2. 
 
 And the Poet puts the following words into the mouth 
 of King Henry VI. (Part II., ii. 1) : 
 
 O God what mischiefs work the wicked ones. 
 Heaping confusion on their own heads thereby ; 
 
 which forcibly remind us of the words of the Royal 
 Psalmist ; " As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him ; 
 as he delighted not in blessing so let it be far from him ; 
 as he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, 
 
 ' Psalm vii. 15 ; Ecclus., xxvii. 25 — 28 ; Genesis, xlii. 6. 
 - Genesis, xlii. 21. ^ Proverbs, xxvi. 27.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 35 
 
 SO let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into 
 
 his bones ; let him be covered with his own confusion as 
 
 with a mantle."* 
 
 Hear Shakspere again : 
 
 We but teach 
 Bloody instructions, which beinjj taught, return 
 To plague the inventor : thus even-handed Justice 
 Commends the ingredients of our poison 'd chalice 
 To our own lips. — Macbeth, i. 7- 
 
 Again : 
 
 These dread curses recoil 
 
 And turn the force of them upon thyself. 
 
 King Henry VJ., Part II., iii. 2. 
 
 If these men have defeated the law, and outrun native punishment, 
 though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God." — 
 King Henry V., iv. 1. 
 
 Such is the teaching both of the Bible and of Shakspere, 
 on the subject of sin, and its certain punishment. 
 
 Let us now consider the value which attaches to the pos- 
 session of a spotless and unsullied reputation. We shall 
 first inquire what the Bible says upon this subject ; and 
 then compare its teaching with that of our Poet. The one 
 tells us, that " a good name is better than riches."^ The 
 other declares, that " good name in man or woman is the 
 immediate jewel of their souls:"'"' 
 
 Who steals my purse, steals trash ; 'tis something, nothing; 
 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 
 But he, that filches from me my good name, 
 Robs me of that, which not enriches him. 
 And makes me poor indeed. — Othello, iii. 3. 
 
 Reputation, Reputation, Reputation ! O I have lost my reputation ! 
 I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. — 
 ii., 3. 
 
 The purest treasure mortal times afford. 
 
 Is — spotless reputation ; that away. 
 
 Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. — King Richard III., i. 1. 
 
 ' Psalm cix. 17, &c. " Psalm cxxxix. 9. ^ Ecclesiastes, vii. I. 
 
 d2
 
 36 SHAKSPERE 
 
 On the subject of the relationship that exists between the 
 soul and the body, there is a passage in Shakspere's Poems, 
 which is so entirely Scriptural in its tone and expression, 
 that I cannot forbear quoting it : 
 
 Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, 
 
 FoolVl by those rebel powers that thee array. 
 
 Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth. 
 
 Painting thy outward walls so costly gay ? 
 
 Why so large cost, having so short a lease. 
 
 Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend ? ^ 
 
 Shall worms, inheritors of this excess 
 
 Eat up thy charge ? 2 Is this thy body's end ? 
 
 Then, soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss. 
 
 And let that pine to aggravate thy store ; 
 
 Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross ; 
 
 Within be fed, without be rich no more : 
 
 So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men ; 
 
 And Death once dead, there's no more dying then. 
 
 Sonnets, cxlvi. 
 
 There is another truth which Holy Scripture clearly 
 teaches ; — that the Prince of Darkness, who is said to go 
 about seeking whom he may devour,^ exerts a mighty in- 
 fluence for evil over the souls of men. The better to dis- 
 guise his malignant attacks, he is said to transform himself 
 into an angel of light.'* This supernatural agency and 
 transformation of the spiritual powers against which we are 
 commanded to wrestle, is distinctly noticed by Shakspere : 
 
 Oftentimes, to win us to our harm. 
 The instruments of darkness tell us truths ; 
 Win us with honest trifles, to betray us 
 In deepest consequence. — Macbeth, i. 3. 
 
 He also tells us, that 
 
 Devils soonest tempt resembhng spirits of light. 
 
 Love's Labour Lost, iv. 3. 
 
 1 2 Corinthians, v. 1. - Job, xix. 26. 
 
 ' 1 Peter, v. 8. •'2 Corinthians, xi. 14.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 37 
 
 Again : 
 
 Sometimes we are devils to ourselves. 
 When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, 
 Presumiug on their changeful potency. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, iv. 4. 
 
 In other passages he speaks of the Devil as " the enemy 
 of mankind"; and of "illusions" by which men are de- 
 ceived. He tells us also that "when devils will their 
 blackest sins put on, they do suggest at first with heavenly 
 show," for that " they have power to assume a pleasing 
 shape." 
 
 Now is not all this in strictest accordance with the spirit, 
 and with the letter of the Holy Scriptures ? But it is not 
 of the agency of evil spirits alone that the Bible makes such 
 frequent mention ; it calls our attention also to another, 
 and a very different kind of agency, which is at work in 
 this our lower world, — an agency for good ; and one no less 
 active in its operation for the welfare of our kind, than is 
 the Satanic agency, for our confusion and final ruin. Good 
 angels, as well as bad, are there mentioned ; blessed spirits, 
 as well as spirits accursed ; ministering, and guardian angels ; 
 who not only alway do God service in heaven, but also 
 succour and defend His people on earth ; ever speeding on 
 their errands of love and mercy, in obedience to the ordi- 
 nance of their Creator. 
 
 Let us see what traces of such a benign and wonderful 
 agency are discoverable in the writings of our Poet. 
 
 Now we find him in one place speaking of " that excel- 
 lence that angels love good men with ;" ^ and in another, 
 the " angels and ministers of grace " are apostrophized, and 
 summoned for aid and defence. — Hamlet, i. 4. 
 
 ' King Henry VIII., ii. 1.
 
 38 SHAK8PERE 
 
 Again : 
 
 Oh, you blessed ministers above. 
 Keep me in patience. — Measure for Measure, v. i. 
 
 At another time he describes them as " weeping at the 
 fantastic tricks played before high heaven by man clothed in 
 a little petty brief authority." — Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 
 He furthermore recognises, in another place, the comforting 
 truth of good ansrels beinjr " about" a man ;' and the same 
 belief in the doctrine of the constant attendance of guardian 
 angels is noticed in the celebrated speech of Antony over 
 the corpse of the murdered Caesar. — Julius Caesar, iii. 2. 
 
 If you have tears, prepare to shed them now; 
 
 You all do know this mantle : I remember 
 
 The first time Caesar ever put it on ; 
 
 'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent. 
 
 That day he overcame the Nervii. 
 
 Look ! in this place, ran Cassius' dagger through : 
 
 See what a rent the envious Casca made : 
 
 Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd ; 
 
 And, as he pluck'd his cursed steel away, 
 
 Mark how the blood of Caesar followed it. 
 
 As rushing out of doors, to be resolv'd 
 
 If Brutus so unkindly knock'd or no ; 
 
 For Brutus ^as you know) was Ccpsar's angel. 
 
 Did he live now. 
 This sight would make him do a desperate turn. 
 Yea, curse his better angel from his side. 
 And fall to reprobation. — Othello, v. 2. 
 
 These passages would appear to countenance the belief 
 that every man has his own particular angel, to whose 
 especial charge his safety and well-being are entrusted ; and 
 in corroboration of this I would refer to that remarkable 
 saying of our Blessed Lord, recorded in Matthew xviii. 10, 
 " Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones ; 
 for I say unto you, that in heaven, their angels do always 
 
 ^ Psalm xxxiii. 7.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 39 
 
 behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." The 
 same truth seems to be intimated, in the account which is 
 given (in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter xii.) of the 
 deliverance of S. Peter from prison. When he presented 
 himself at the door of the house of Mary, and knocked, the 
 inmates could not believe that their unexpected visitor was 
 S. Peter himself, whom they supposed to be still bound in 
 prison ; — but they affirmed that it was his angel. 
 
 Such was, at least among the Jews, the prevalent opinion 
 which was entertained respecting the particular attendance 
 of guardian angels ; and Origen, Jerome, Plato, and others, 
 believed that Kingdoms, as well as individuals, have been 
 placed under the tutelary guardianship and protection of 
 some ministering genius, or angel, whose office and business 
 it is to watch over and protect their interests at all times ; 
 of some of these tutelary saints who presided over king- 
 doms, we find the names recorded in Shakspere : it is suf- 
 ficient for my purpose to mention only S. George, the 
 reputed protector of merry England. — King Henry V., iii. 1. 
 
 Another fact is revealed in Holy Scripture respecting 
 
 guardian angels : we are there told that those bright spirits 
 
 are employed to convey the souls of the departed into 
 
 Abraham's bosom. This is alluded to also in Shakspere — 
 
 Hamlet, v., 2 : 
 
 Good night, sweet prince. 
 And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. 
 
 And the expression "Abraham's bosom" occurs more than 
 once in our Poet, to designate the happy and eternal resi- 
 dence of those who have departed this life in the faith and 
 fear of God. 
 
 With regard to Satan, and his angels, we are taught by 
 Scripture, that they once were in the full enjoyment of
 
 40 SHAKSPERE 
 
 unspeakable happiness, but are now apostate, fallen, and 
 miserable. We gather from the very few and incidental 
 references there made to this mysterious subject, that the 
 cause of their losing their first estate was Pride, which 
 is therefore called by the Apostle S. Paul, " the condemna- 
 tion of the devil ;"i and that by reason of their offence, 
 they are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness 
 unto the judgment of the great day.''^ 
 
 Now, when we turn to Shakspere, we find him alluding 
 to these mysterious facts with the same brevity as that 
 with which they are hinted at in the Inspired Volume. In 
 Henry VIII., iii. 2, Wolsey, the fallen Cardinal, thus 
 addresses Cromwell: 
 
 Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear 
 
 In all my miseries ; but thou hast forced me. 
 
 Out of thy honest truth, to play the woman. 
 
 Let's dry our eyes; and thus far hear me, Cromwell; 
 
 And, when f am forfjotten, as I shall be. 
 
 And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention 
 
 Of me more must be heard of, — say, I taught thee. 
 
 Say, Wolsey, tiiat once trod the ways of glory. 
 
 And sounded all the depths and shoals of honour, 
 
 Foinid thee a way, out of his wrack, to rise in ; 
 
 A sure and safe one, though thy master miss'd it. 
 
 Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me. 
 
 Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away Ambition : 
 
 By that sin fell the angels, how can man, then. 
 
 The image of his Maker,^ hope to win by 't ? 
 
 Angels are bright still though the brightest fell. — Macbeth, iv. 3. 
 
 The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire 
 of knowledge in excess caused man to fall. — Bacon. 
 
 Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes. 
 
 Men would be angels, angels would be gods 
 
 Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell, 
 
 Aspiring to be angels, men rebel. — Pope's Essay on Man. 
 
 Aorain : 
 
 ^ 1 Timothy, iii. 6. * Jude, 6. ^ Genesis, i. 27.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 41 
 
 I charge thee, Satan, hous'd within this man. 
 
 To yield possession to my holy prayers. 
 
 And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight. 
 
 In this last passage we discover a reference to the penal 
 darkness to which the accursed spirits are doomed ; and 
 also to that most mysterious subject of Demoniacal Pos- 
 session, which seems, during the time of our Blessed Lord's 
 sojourn upon earth, to have been permitted in order that 
 He might show forth His Almighty power in the forcible 
 ejection of that kind which, as He Himself tells us, goeth 
 not out but by prayer and fasting.^ 
 
 Many and interesting treatises have been written on the 
 question, as to whether we shall recognise hereafter in 
 heaven those whom we have known and conversed with here 
 on earth. Upon this subject, as indeed upon all questions 
 the solution of which would minister, rather to the grati- 
 fication of a curiosity, however laudable, than to man''s 
 furtherance in personal holiness, the Scripture supplies us 
 with no decided and definite information. From all that 
 we can there gather, we come to the conclusion that there is 
 nothing in the Bible which militates against the belief that 
 we shall mutually recognise one another hereafter ; but on 
 the contrary, that there are many intimations which would 
 seem to favour an opinion so consonant with the best 
 feelings of our nature, and so well calculated, in the season 
 of our bereavement, to afford us extreme pleasure and strong 
 consolation. 
 
 How beautifully does Constance (in King John, iii. 4) 
 make reference to this opinion, when she says : 
 
 Father Cardinal, I have heard you say 
 That we shall see and know our friends in heaven : 
 
 ' Lukcj xvii. 21.
 
 42 SHAKSPERE 
 
 If that be true, I shall see my boy again ; 
 For since the birth of Cain, the first male child, 
 To him that did but yesterday suspire. 
 There was not such a gracious creature born. 
 But now will canker sorrow eat my bud. 
 And chase the native beauty from my cheek. 
 And he will look as hollow as a ghost. 
 As dim and meagre as an ague's fit. 
 And so he'll die ; and rising so again. 
 When I shall meet him in the court of heaven 
 I shall not know him ; therefore, never, never 
 Must I behold my pretty Arthur more. 
 
 Again : 
 
 Fare you well ! 
 Hereafter, in a better world than this, 
 I shall desire more love and knowledge of you. 
 
 As You Like It, i. 2. 
 
 And in King Richard III., iii, 3 : 
 
 Let us here embrace : 
 Farewell, until we meet again in heaven. 
 
 In considering the protection which is afforded us by 
 good angels, we must never lose sight of the fact, to which 
 I have already briefly alluded, that it is God, " the Lord of 
 Hosts," by whom they are sent forth on their errands of 
 mercy. ^ They are the servants of the most High ; and 
 although they are immeasurably greater in power and 
 might than ourselves,^ still they are only created beings, 
 to whom therefore we dare not ascribe adoration and wor- 
 ship, if we would not be found guilty of idolatry.^ To use 
 the language of Shakspere, " God is the author, they the 
 instruments." King Henry VI., Part III., iv. 6. To Him, 
 therefore, and to no creature, is our homage due ; to Him 
 alone should we direct our prayers. 
 
 To thee do I commend my watchful soul. 
 
 Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes ; 
 
 Sleeping and waking, O defend me still. — Richard HI., v. 3. 
 
 ^ Hebrews, i. 14. " Psalm ciii. 20. ^ Revelation, xix. 10.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 43 
 
 Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass, 
 But still remember what the Lord hath done. 
 
 King Henry VI., Part IL, ii. L 
 
 Heaven set ope thy everlasting gates 
 To entertain my vows of thanks and praise. — iv. 9. 
 
 There is a duty, on which the Holy Scriptures lay great 
 stress ; and we need not be surprised at this, when we con- 
 sider that the God, by whose Spirit those sacred Books 
 were inspired, is a God whose " tender mercies are over all 
 His works ; " ' over every creature, animate or inanimate, 
 rational or irrational, which his hands have created ; I 
 mean the duty of showing kindness to the brute creation. 
 " The eyes of all, both of man and of beast, wait upon God, 
 and he o-iveth them their meat in due season." ^ He 
 openeth His bounteous hand and satisfieth the desire of 
 every living thing. 
 
 The Mosaic Law enjoined the strict and rigid observance 
 of the Sabbath day, for the benefit not only of man, but also 
 of the brute creation, that the ox and the ass might rest as 
 well as their owner. " Thou shalt not see," says God, 
 " thy brother's ass, or his ox fall down by the way, and 
 hide thyself from them ; thou shalt surely help him to lift 
 them up again." ^ 
 
 Thus we see that the Benevolent Creator of all things 
 has a care, not only for men, but for dumb animals ; " He 
 preserveth both man and beast." And here I may observe, 
 that the cruelty which first shows itself in the torturing 
 of brute creatures almost invariably proceeds to greater 
 lengths, and finally issues in the display of ferocity towards 
 man. The gradual development and progress of cruelty 
 has been most faithfully delineated in the life-like sketches 
 
 ' Psalmcxlv.9. - Psahn, cxlv. 1.5. ^ Deuteronomy, x.xii. 4.
 
 44 SHAKSPERE 
 
 of Hogarth, who has effected with his brush what Shakspere 
 has accomplished with his pen. " Young boys are mis- 
 chievous, hard-hearted little torments, who try their pren- 
 tice hand on cats and donkeys, and even on inoffensive 
 birds, and so perfect themselves in the acts by which they 
 arrive at manhood, when they will work woe and destruc- 
 tion among their fellowmen." (The Owlet of Owlstone 
 Edge.) 
 
 We need not look far into the works of our great 
 Dramatist to find proofs of his appreciation of the kindness 
 towards the brute creation which the Bible invariably 
 inculcates. Let us take his celebrated description of the 
 wounded stag : 
 
 Come shall we go and kill us venison ? 
 And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools— 
 Beinoj native burjrhers of this desert city, — 
 Should in their own confines, with forked heads. 
 Have their round haunches gored. . . . 
 
 Indeed my lord 
 The melancholy Jaques grieves at that. — 
 To day, rny lord of Amiens, and myself 
 Did steal behind him, as he lay along 
 Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out 
 Upon the brouk that brawls along this wood ; 
 To the which place a poor seqnester'd stag. 
 That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt. 
 Did come to languish ; and indeed my lord. 
 The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans. 
 That their discharge did stretch his leathern coat 
 Almost to bursting : and the big round tears 
 Cours'd one another down his innocent nose 
 In piteous chase : and thus the hairy fool. 
 Stood on the extremest verge of the swift brook. 
 Augmenting it with tears, — 
 
 But what said Jaques? 
 Did he not moralize this spectacle ? 
 O yes, into a thousand similies. 
 First, for his weeping in the needless stream ; 
 " Poor deer," quoth he, " thou mak'st a testament 
 As worldlings do, giving the sum of more 
 To that which had too much : " Then, being alone. 
 Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends ;
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 45 
 
 " 'Tis right " quoth he " thus misery doth part 
 
 The flux of company : " Anon, a careless herd. 
 
 Full of the pasture, jumps along by him. 
 
 And never stays to greet him ; " Ay," quoth Jaques, 
 
 " Sweep on you fat and greasy citizens; 
 
 'Tis just the fashion : wherefore do you look 
 
 Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there ? " ' 
 
 As You Like It, ii. 1. 
 
 To take another example : Who, but a true Poet of 
 Nature, and a man of the most exquisite and kindly sensi- 
 bilities, could have written the following lines upon a 
 hunted hare ? 
 
 The purblind hare, 
 Mark the poor wretch, to overshoot his troubles. 
 How he outruns the wind, and with what care 
 He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles. 
 
 But the pitiless chase still continues, and the minutes of 
 the poor fugitive are numbered : 
 
 By this, poor Wat, far off, upon a hill. 
 Stands on his hinder legs ; with list'ning ear. 
 To hearken if his foes pursue him still ; 
 Anon their loud alarums he doth hear ; 
 And now his grief may be compared well 
 To one sore sick, that hears the passing-bell. 
 Then shalt thou see the dew-bedabbled wretch. 
 Turn and return, indenting with the way ; 
 Each envious briar his weary legs doth scratch. 
 Each shadow makes him stop, each murmur stay ; 
 For misery is trodden down by many 
 And being low, never reheved by any. 
 
 Poems. V^enus and Adonis. 
 
 " Nature" says our Poet " teaches beasts to know their 
 friends." 2 " The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his 
 master's crib,"^ says the Inspired Prophet. And those who 
 (in the words of Shakspere) give their animals " provender 
 only for bearing burdens, and sore blows for sinking under 
 them," deserve as a recompense for their cruelty, to learn 
 
 * Proverbs, xiv. 20. ' Coriolanus, ii. 1. ' Isaiah, i. 3.
 
 46 SHAKSPERE 
 
 by bitter experience, what it is to have a loaded back and 
 au empty stomach. 
 
 There is a very notable prophecy delivered by Cranmer, 
 on the birth of the Princess Elizabeth ; a prophecy which 
 I shall venture to set down in full, not only because it is 
 mainly expressed in terms derived from Holy Scripture, 
 but also because, in the happy age in which we live, the 
 prophecy has received a more complete fulfilment. 
 
 This royal infant, — heaven still move about her ! 
 
 Though in her cradle, yet now promises 
 
 Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings. 
 
 Which time shall bring to ripeness. She shall be 
 
 A pattern to all princes living with her. 
 
 And all that shall succeed ; Sheba was never 
 
 More covetous of wisdom and fair virtue 
 
 Than this pure soul shall be ; i all princely graces. 
 
 That mould up such a mighty piece as this is. 
 
 With all the virtues that attend the good. 
 
 Shall still be doubled on her : truth shall nurse her ; 
 
 Holy and heavenly thoughts still counsel her ; 
 
 She shall be lov'd and fear'd : her own shall bless her f 
 
 Her foes shake like a field of beaten corn. 
 
 And hang their heads with sorrow : good grows with her. 
 
 In her days every man shall eat in safety 
 
 Under his own vine what he plants.-'' and sing 
 
 The merry songs of peace to all his neighbours.'' 
 
 God shall be truly known ; and those about her 
 
 From her shall read the perfect ways of honour. 
 
 And by those claim their greatness, not their blood.'' 
 
 Nor shall peace sleep with her : but as when 
 
 The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix. 
 
 Her ashes new create another heir. 
 
 As great in admiration, as herself; 
 
 So shall she leave her blessedness to one 
 
 (When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness) 
 
 Who from the sacred ashes of her honour 
 
 Shall star-like rise, as great in fame, as she was. 
 
 And so stand fix'd. Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror. 
 
 That were the servants to this chosen infant, 
 
 Shall then be his, and like a vine grow to him ; 
 
 Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine. 
 
 His honour and the greatness of his name 
 
 1 Kings, x.l. 2 Proverbs, xxxi. 28. ^ Micah, iv. 4. 
 
 ^ Isaiah, xvi. 10. ^ Proverbs, xxxi. 25.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 47 
 
 Shall be and make new nations ; he shall flourish. 
 And like a mountain cedar, reach his branches 
 To all the plains about him.' Our children's children 
 Shall see this and bless heaven. — King Henry VIII., v. 4. 
 
 The transition from Peace and Plenty to " lean famine, 
 quartering steel, and climbing fire,"^ is rapid and easy, not 
 only in imagination, but in reality. The scene suddenly 
 changes. The vine under which its owner ate in quiet 
 security, " the vine, the merry cheerer of the heart un- 
 pruned dies.''^ Instead of the " merry songs of peace," we 
 are affrighted by the harsh and discordant sounds of war ; 
 "sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air are made 
 not mark'd." — Macbeth, iv. 3. 
 
 Frighted are pale-fac'd villagers vrith war 
 
 And ostentation of despised arms. — King Richard II., ii. 3. 
 
 Where smiling Peace was sitting enthroned, " The mailed 
 Mars does on his altar sit up to the ears in blood." — King 
 Henry IV., iv. 1. Such are the horrors of war, as de- 
 scribed by our Poet, who moreover inculcates the important 
 lesson, that nothing but the sternest necessity can warrant 
 a nation in breaking off its relationships of peace with its 
 neighbours. 
 
 How you awake the sleeping sword of war 
 We charge you, in the name of God, take heed. 
 
 King Henry V., i. 2. 
 
 There is another passage in Shakspere, which bears a 
 
 very close resemblance to the words of our Blessed Lord on 
 
 the same subject : 
 
 When we mean to build. 
 We first survey the plot, then draw the model. 
 And when we see the figure of the house. 
 Then must we rate the cost of the erection : 
 Which if we find outweighs ability, 
 
 1 Psalm xcii. 12. - King Henry VI., Part II., iv. 2. 
 
 3 Judges, ix. 13.
 
 48 SHAKSPERE 
 
 What do we then, but draw anew the inodel. 
 
 In fewer offices; or at least, desist 
 
 To build at all ? Much more in this great work 
 
 (Which is almost to pluck a kinofdorn down 
 
 And set another up) should we survey 
 
 The plot of situation, and the model. 
 
 Consent upon a sure foundation ; 
 
 Question surveyors; know our own estate. 
 
 How able such a work to undergo. 
 
 To weigh against his opposite ; or else. 
 
 We fortify on paper, and in figures, 
 
 Using the names of men instead of men ; 
 
 Like one that draws the model of a house 
 
 Beyond his power to build it ; who, half through. 
 
 Gives o'er and leaves his part-created cost 
 
 A naked subject to the weeping clouds. 
 
 And waste for churlish winter's tyranny. 
 
 King Henry IV., Part II., i. 3. 
 
 The resemblance between this passage, and the words of 
 our Blessed Lord, recorded in Luke xiv., 28, &c., is too 
 striking to escape observation : "Which of you intending to 
 build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, 
 whether he have sufficient to finish it ? Lest haply, after 
 he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all 
 that behold it begin to mock him, saying. This man began 
 to build and was not able to fini.sh. Or what king, going 
 to make war against another king, sitteth not down fii;gt 
 and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to 
 meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand ? 
 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off he sendeth 
 an ambassage and desireth conditions of peace." 
 
 Moreover the Scripture assures us, that War is one of 
 the four sore judgments which God sends as a punishment 
 upon nations : * that the issues of it are uncertain ; and that 
 it is God, and He alone, who gives, or withholds the vic- 
 tory. In exact accordance with these statements we read 
 in Shakspere : 
 
 ^ Ezekiel, xiv. 21.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 49 
 
 O war, thou son of hell. 
 Whom angry heavens do make their minister. 
 
 Kmg Henry VI., Part II., v. 2. 
 
 Thou know'.st 
 The end of war's uncertain.^ — Coriolanus, v. 3. 
 
 O Thou ! whose captain I account myself. 
 Look on my forces with a gracious eye ; 
 Put in their hands thy bruising-irons of wrath. 
 That they may crush down with a heavy fall 
 Th' usurping helmets of our adversaries! 
 Make us thy ministers of chastisement. 
 That wo may praise thee in thy victory.' 
 
 King Richard III., v. 3. 
 
 Both in Scripture, and in Shakspere, the sword is sup- 
 posed to be, in the time of peace, as it were sleeping in its 
 scabbard, and to awake at the noisy din of war.^ In the 
 Bible, we read of the sword that devouretk ;* and the same 
 forcible metaphor is used by our Poet when he says that 
 
 Hungry war opens his vasty jaws. — King Henry V., ii. 4. 
 
 But it is needless to multiply examples to show the 
 correspondence of Shakspere's language with that of the 
 Inspired Writings, on every circumstance connected with 
 War and Peace. The self-same images are constantly 
 employed, and they are employed because no others could 
 be used with equal force and appropriateness. 
 
 It is gratifying to observe that not only on the subjects 
 already mentioned, but also on the profoundest mysteries of 
 our Holy Religion, a like correspondence between Holy 
 Scripture and Shakspere is clearly discernible. Our Poet 
 tells us of 
 
 That dread King, that took our state upon Him 
 To free us from His Father's wrathful curse.* 
 
 King Henry VL, Part II., iii. 2. 
 
 ' 1 Kings, XX. 11. ^ I Chronicles, xxix. II. ^ Zechariah, xiii. 7. 
 * 2 Samuel, xi. 25. ^ Romans, v. 9.
 
 50 SHAKSPERE 
 
 And of 
 
 Christ's dear blood, shed for our p;rievoijs sins.* 
 
 King Richard 111., i. 4. 
 
 Allusions are found in his writings to the " sepulchre of 
 Christ ;" to the " holy fields of Palestine over whose acres 
 walked those blessed feet which were nail'd for our redemp- 
 tion to the bitter cross "^ — Henry lY., Part I., i. 1 ; of 
 " the death of Him that died for all." — King Henry VI., 
 Part n., i. 1. 
 
 We find there also such passages as the following, whose 
 
 resemblance to Holy Sci'ipture we need scarcely more than 
 
 mention : 
 
 If ever I were traitor. 
 My name be blotted from the book of life.— King Richard II., i. 3. 
 
 Cf. Philippians, iv. 3 ; Revelation, xxii. 19. 
 
 With Cain go wander through the shade of night.^ 
 
 King Richard II., v. 6. 
 
 We'll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there's no labouring 
 in the winter.* — King Lear, ii. 4. 
 
 We read there of " blood,""' which, 
 
 Like sacrificing Abel's, cries. 
 Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth.^ — Richard IT., i. 1. 
 
 That 
 
 Ignorance is the curse of God,** 
 
 Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.? 
 
 King Henry VI., Part II., iv. 7. 
 
 Again : 
 
 God shall be my hope,^ 
 My stay,^ my guide,^" and lantern ^^ to my feet. — ii. 3. 
 
 ' Mark, xiv. 24. - Mark, vi. 6. ^ Genesis, iv. 12, 16. 
 
 4 Proverbs, XXX. 25. ^ Genesis, iv.; Hebrews, xii. 24. 
 
 8 Proverbs, xix. 2. ' Genesis, iii. 5. ^ Psalm Ixxi. 5. 
 
 9 Psalm xviii. 18. '« Psalm xlviii. 14. '' Psalm cxix. 105.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 51 
 
 Now God be praised ! that to believino; souls 
 Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.^ — li. 1. 
 
 Withhold thy indignation. Mighty Heaven, 
 
 And tempt us not to bear above our power .^ — King John, v. 6. 
 
 We are there told, of " Wisdom crying out iu the streets 
 and no man regarding itj^^ — Henry IV., Part I., i. 2 ; of 
 "Heaven the wido\v''s champion and defence," — King 
 Richard H., i. 1 ; " A widow cries Be husband to me Hea- 
 vens,"" — King John, iii. 1, in exact accordance with God's 
 consohng assurance, by the mouth of Isaiah, " Thy Maker 
 is thy husband ; the Lord of Hosts is His name ; ""^ but on 
 this subject I shall say no more in this place. 
 
 The will of Heaven 
 Be done in this and all things. — King Henry VIH., i. 1. 
 
 Here we have a clear and distinct echo from the Prayer 
 
 which our Lord Himself has taught us. 
 
 Again : 
 
 O God, thy arm was here. 
 And not to us, but to thy arm alone 
 Ascribe we all ... . Take it, God, 
 For it is only thine. — King Henry V., iv. 8. 
 
 The duty which is so often imposed upon us in the Bible, 
 of " examining our own selves," is echoed iu the words of 
 Shakspere. — As You Like It, iii. 2 : 
 
 I will chide no breather in the world, but myself against whom I 
 know most faults. 
 
 Again : 
 
 Though some of you, like Pilate, wash your hands 
 
 Showing an outward pity ; yet you, Pilates 
 
 Have here delivered me to my sour cross, 
 
 And water cannot wash away your sin.^ — King Richard 11., iv. 1. 
 
 ^ 2 Samuel, xxii. 29; 2 Corinthians, vii. 6. - 1 Corinthians, x. 13. 
 Proverbs, i. 20, 21. * Isaiah, hv. 5. ^ Matthew, xxvii. 24. 
 
 e2
 
 52 SHAKSPERE 
 
 It is as hard .... as for a camel 
 
 To thread the postern of a needle's eye.^ — v. 5. 
 
 Confess yourselves to heaven. 
 Repent what's past, avoid vphat is to come.'' — Hamlet, iii. 4. 
 
 Then God foro;ive the sin of all those soiils 
 
 That to their everlastinj^ residence 
 
 Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet 
 
 In dreadful trial of our kingdom's king. — King John, ii. I. 
 
 O what may man within him hide. 
 
 Though angel on the outward side !^ — INIeasure for Measure, iii. 2. 
 
 Again ; as a sort of commentary on the mote and the 
 beam, mentioned by our Blessed Lord,* Shakspere says : 
 
 Go to your bosom ; 
 Knock there, and ask your heart, what it doth know 
 That's like my brother's fault; if it confess 
 A natural guiltiness, such as is his. 
 Let it not sound a thouglit upon your tongue 
 Against ray brother. — Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 
 
 The trust I have is in mine innocence. 
 And therefore am I bold and resolute.= 
 
 King Henry VI., Part II., iv. 4. 
 
 Again : "in the managing of quarrels you may see he is 
 wise ; for either he avoids them with great discretion, or 
 undertakes them with a Christian-like fear.^ — Much Ado 
 about Nothing, ii. 3. 
 
 Tn Shakspere we read of " Slander's venom spear,"" 7 — 
 King Richard II., i. 1 ; and of one of whom it is said, " Is 
 he a lamb ? his skin is surely lent him, For he's inclined as 
 is the ravenous wolf,"^ — King Henry YI., Part II., iii. 1 ; 
 and of a "tongue more poisonous than an adder's tooth," ^ 
 — King Henry VI., Part III., i. 4 ; of one who "could 
 smile and murder while he smiled,'' ^" — iii. 2 ; " the words 
 
 1 Matthew, xix. 24. 2 Isaiah, i. 16, 17. 
 
 3 Matthew, xxiii 37- •* Matthew, vii. 3. 
 
 * Proverbs, xxviii. 1 ; Nehemiah, vi. II ; Proverbs, xxviii. I. 
 
 ^ Proverbs, xvii. 14. ^ Proverbs, x. 18; Ecclus., xxviii. 18, 19. 
 
 s Matthew, vii. 15. ^ Psalm cxl. 3. ^» Matthew, xxvi.49.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 53 
 
 of whose mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in 
 his heart : his words were softer than oil, yet were they 
 drawn swords."' 
 
 In another pLace we discover a manifest allusion to tho 
 Parable of the Tares of the Field : 2 
 
 His foes are so enrooted with his friends. 
 
 That, plucking to unfix an enemy. 
 
 He doth unfasten so, and shake a friend.^ 
 
 Henry IV., Part H., ii. 1. 
 
 Again ; the scriptural allusions in the following passages 
 are evident : 
 
 The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose ; * 
 
 An evil soul producing holy witness 
 
 Is like a villain with a smiling cheek ; 
 
 A goodly apple rotten at the heart ; 
 
 O what a goodly outside falsehood hath.^ 
 
 Merchant of Venice, i. 3. 
 
 Our thoughts here turn instinctively to the whited 
 sepulchres, (mentioned by our Lord,) fair to look upon, but 
 full of rottenness and corruption.^ 
 
 What again can be more scriptural than this I 
 
 You have too much respect upon the world ; 
 They lose it that do buy it with much care. 
 
 Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 
 
 Or than these ? 
 
 Truth will come to light.^ — Merchant of Venice, ii. 2. 
 
 To do a great right do a little wrong. 
 It must not be. — iv. 1. 
 
 How strictly in accordance with Scripture is the expres- 
 sion in Shakspcre, "the muddy vesture of decay," ^ as 
 
 1 Psalm Iv. 21. 2 Matthew, xiii. 25. ^ Matthew, xiii. 29. 
 
 * Matthew, iv. 6. ^ Deuteronomy, xxxii. .32. ^ Matthew, xxiii. 2/. 
 
 '' Numbers, xxxii. 23. ^ 2 Corinthians, v. 1, &c.
 
 54 SHAKSPERE 
 
 applied to the perishing body in which for awhile the 
 immortal soul of man is clothed ! 
 
 Again Shakspere, as well as the Bible, enjoins us "To 
 do what we do, unfeignedly." — King Richard III., i. 4. 
 " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; 
 for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, 
 in the o-rave whither thou jroest."'"' — Ecclesiastes, ix. 10. 
 
 Again, how consonant with Holy Scripture are the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 No more can you distinguish of a man^ 
 
 Than of his outward show ; which God, He knows. 
 
 Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.^ — iii. 1. 
 
 'Tis a vile thing to die — 
 
 When men are unprepar'd and look not for it. — iii. 2. 
 
 And here we may remark, by the way, that the Petition 
 in our Litany, " Good Lord deliver us from sudden death^" 
 a petition to which some persons have raised an objection, 
 on the ground that a good man should always be ready for 
 his dismissal, stands somewhat difi'erently worded in the 
 ancient sources from which the Litany is derived. It there 
 stands thus : " Good Lord deliver us from unprepared and 
 sudden death." And yet, if this were not the case, it is 
 very questionable whether any solid objection would lie 
 against the petition in its present form : for surely it is but 
 a reasonable prudence as regards the settlement of our 
 worldly affairs, and becoming humility as regards our pre- 
 paredness for another world, that suggest to us the pro- 
 priety of beseeching God not to call us out of the land of 
 the living suddenly and without warning. 
 
 The passage in Shakspere to which 1 shall next direct 
 attention, is one which brings very vividly to our minds 
 
 ^ 1 Samuel, xvi. 7 ; John, vii. 24.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 55 
 
 the case of the Patriarch Job, on whose affliction we have 
 already dwelt at some length. 
 
 Why should calamity be full of words? 
 
 Windy attorneys, to their client woes. 
 
 Airy succeeders of intestate joys. 
 
 Poor breathing orators of miseries ! 
 
 Let them have scope ; tho' what they do impart 
 
 Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart. 
 
 King Richard III., iv. 4. 
 
 Shakspere tells us, and so does Solomon, that the sun 
 and the moon are called respectively " the greater and 
 the lesser light." "The crack of doom;" "the ending 
 doom ;" " the general all-ending day ;" " the blast of the 
 archangel's trump ;" the " dreadful trumpet that shall 
 " sound the general doom ;" " the last account ""twixt 
 heaven and earth ;" and the final dissolution of all things ; 
 are mentioned and described by our Poet in a manner 
 which proves, beyond all doubt or question, his very accu- 
 rate and intimate acquaintance with the contents of those 
 Sacred Books, which the true poet, and the real Christian 
 must alike reverence and adore. 
 
 Let us compare the description given us in Holy Writ, 
 and that furnished by Shakspere, of the final breaking up 
 of the present order and disposition of the material uni- 
 verse. We hear in the Bible the prophetic voice of S. Peter 
 as he tells us, that " the heavens shall pass away with a 
 great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, 
 the earth also and the works that are therein shall be 
 burned up ;" ' and then, when we turn to Shakspere, we 
 hear the same prophecy of the dismemberment of earth's 
 fabric uttered in language which no uninspired writer could 
 surpass. 
 
 1 2 Peter, iii. 10.
 
 56 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Like the baseless fabric of a vision 
 Tlie cloud-capp'd towers, the fjorgeous palaces. 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself. 
 Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve 
 And like an unsubstantial pageant faded 
 Leave not a rack behind. — Tempest, iv. L 
 
 But we will now leave these sublime and awful subjects, 
 and descend for awhile into the regions of ordinary life and 
 ordinary habits. 
 
 It will be remembered that John the Baptist is said to 
 have lived on locusts. Now some persons have maintained 
 that the locusts, which formed the food of the pious 
 eremite, were very different from what is generally under- 
 stood by that name. But there is, I believe, little or no 
 foundation for the various opinions which these objectors 
 have taken up. Locusts of a certain kind the Mosaic Law 
 did not prohibit as an article of food, as any one may see 
 for himself, who will take the trouble to refer to the Book 
 of Leviticus,' wherein the subject of lawful and unlawful 
 meats is fully considered. Locusts were used as food, not 
 only by the Jews, but also by other nations. — See " Spar- 
 man's Voyage," vol. i, p. 367, »Sz;c. ; Diodorus Siculus, 
 xxiv. 3 ; Porphyrins De Abstinentia carnis, and other 
 authorities referred to by Dr. Kitto (Cyclopaedia of Biblical 
 Literature under the word Locusts). 
 
 So in Shakspere we find Locusts (in the ordinary accep- 
 tation of the word) alluded to as an article of human food. 
 
 The food that to him now is as luscious as locusts, shall be to him 
 shortly as bitter as coloquintida. — Othello, i. 3. 
 
 The miraculous story, recorded in Holy Scripture, of 
 Elijah's being supported by flesh brought to him by ravens, ^ 
 is evidently referred to by our Poet in the " Winter''s 
 Tale," ii. 3. 
 
 ' Leviticus, xi 22, "^ 1 Kings, xvii. 6.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 57 
 
 Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens 
 To be thy nurses. 
 
 We meet also in Shakspere with the words 
 
 Lions make leopards tame. 
 Yea, but not change their spots; — King Richard II., i. 1. 
 
 with a manifest allusion to the celebrated Passacre in 
 Holy Writ,^ where the extreme difficulty of throwing aside 
 old habits of sin is, in this way, forcibly illustrated. 
 
 Refrain, 
 And that shall lend a kind of easiness 
 To the next abstinence ; the next more easy : 
 For use can almost chans;e the stamp of nature. 
 And either curb the devil, or throw him out 
 With wondrous potency. — Hamlet, iii. 4. 
 
 I shall now revert to a subject which has been already 
 touched upon. 
 
 To a diligent reader of Holy Scripture it is well known 
 that there is no character in which the Almighty God has 
 thought fit to reveal Himself so often as the God of the 
 widow and of the fatherless children. So we find Him 
 addressed in Shakspere (as we have before observed) as the 
 " widow"'s champion and defence." — King Richard II., i. 2. 
 
 When every earthly stay has been removed, and when 
 heavenly aid and support are most needed, then it is that 
 the Mighty God — the " Father of mercies, and the God of 
 all comfort, "2 cheers and consoles the heartbroken widow 
 with the assurance, " Thy Maker is thine husband ; the 
 Lord of Hosts is His name." — Isaiah, liv. 5. 
 
 In the dark season of bereavement, when the desire of 
 our eyes is taken away with a stroke,^ Holy Scripture 
 nowhere forbids us to shed the tear of soitow, nor encou- 
 rages the human heart to be altog-ether callous and insen- 
 
 ' Jeremiah, xiii. 23. ^ 2 Corinthians, i. 3. ^ Ezekiah, xxiv. IG.
 
 58 SHAKSPERE 
 
 sible to its sufferings. No ; the Bible — indited by that 
 Blessed Spirit, who knows what is in man — deals with him 
 as he is, as a being who is endued with certain passions and 
 affections, which he is not called upon to crush and 
 smother, but to regulate and control ; as subject to 
 sympathies and feelings, which he is not commanded to 
 root out, but to restrain within due and proper limits. 
 Sorrow man may, nay must ; but his grief for the departed 
 may be alleviated and sanctified by the consideration that 
 it is the Lord who has taken away from him what the Lord 
 Himself gave in the first instance.^ Sorrow he will, but 
 not as those who are without a well-grounded hope of again 
 meeting and enjoying communion with those dear ones who 
 are " not lost but o-one before" him to a brifjhter and better 
 world. In a word (to use the language of the Poet, Mac- 
 beth, iv. 3) : 
 
 I must also feel it as a man 
 I cannot but remember such things were. 
 That were most precious to me. 
 
 But in our bitter sorrow we may, and should derive 
 great and unspeakable consolation from the assurances of 
 Holy Scripture which have power to "transport us beyond 
 the ignorant present, and make us feel the future in the 
 instant."— Macbeth, i. 5 ; Cf. 2 Corinthians, iv. 17, 18. 
 
 And be it remembered that, in our grief for the departed, 
 Philosophy can render us no aid or comfort. The assur- 
 ances contained in the Bible are the onl^ ground of solid 
 hope which can support us from utterly sinking in the 
 season of bereavement, at that gloomy hour Avhen every 
 surrounding object serves but to remind us of the departed, 
 be it a husband, a wife, a brother, a sister, or a cherished 
 
 1 Job, i. 21.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 59 
 
 cliild, one on whom we had fondly centered our hopes and 
 affections : 
 
 Grief fills the room up of our abseut child 
 Lies in his bed, walks up and down with us. 
 Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words. 
 Remembers us of all his gracious parts, 
 StuiFs out his vacant garments with his form. 
 
 King John,iii. 4. 
 
 till we grow, like the bereaved Constance, " fond of gTief," 
 and forget that the child has been only removed from the 
 evil to come, and translated to a world of never-ending j»y. 
 
 For though fond nature bids us all lament. 
 Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4. 
 
 Some grief shows much of love. 
 But much of grief shows still some want of wit. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5. 
 
 We must not therefore allow our sorrow, which is in 
 itself lawful and natural, to degenerate into " a sorrow that 
 is without hope ;" into " that excessive grief which is the 
 enemy of the living," (All's Well, &c., i. 1) into "the 
 sorrow of the world which worketh death." ^ 
 
 We shall now consider the teaching of the Word of 
 God, and the teaching of our Poet, on the subject of 
 Patriotism ; or that love of our country which leads us to 
 prefer the land of our birth, with all its faults, and with 
 all its imperfections, to any other country in the world. 
 Now it has been asserted by some, that Patriotism is never 
 once recognised in the Holy Scriptures. For a complete 
 refutation of so ill-founded an assertion, we need only refer 
 to the Book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and to the 
 Psalms of the sweet sinoer of Israel. Dear indeed to the 
 
 * 2 Corinthians, vii. 10.
 
 60 SHAKSPERE 
 
 true Israelite was the fair land of his birth — the land that 
 " flowed with milk and honey :" there was no city in the 
 world so beloved by him as Jerusalem, the joy of the whole 
 earth. " If I forget thee" — he would exclaim with passionate 
 fervour, " let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." * 
 Never were the writers of the Old Testament Books more 
 eloquent than when Salem was their theme ; never were 
 their dirges more plaintive and funereal, than when the 
 peace and prosperity of Jerusalem were endangered, either 
 byHhe hostility of an open foe, or by the dark machinations 
 of a traitor. 
 
 Let us see in what terms our national Dramatist speaks 
 of this country of ours, which is dear to us all, as it was to 
 him ; and dearer it cannot possibly be : 
 
 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, 
 
 This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, 
 
 Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth. 
 
 Renowned for their deeds as far from home, 
 
 (For Christian service, and true chivalry,) 
 
 As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry, 
 
 Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's son : 
 
 This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land. 
 
 Dear for her reputation through the world. 
 
 King Richard II., ii. 1. 
 
 Again 
 
 This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle. 
 This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
 This other Eden, demi-paradise ; 
 This fortress, built by nature for herself. 
 Against infection, and the hand of war : 
 This happy breed of men, this little world ; 
 This precious stone set in the silver sea. 
 Which serves it in the office of a wall. 
 Or as a moat defensive to a house, 
 Against the envy of less happier lands. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 * Psalm cxxxvii, 6.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 61 
 
 That pale, that white-faced shore. 
 Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides. 
 And coops from other lands her islanders. 
 
 King John, ii. 1. 
 
 This England never did, nor never shall. 
 
 Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror. 
 
 But when it first did help to wound itself. 
 
 Come the three corners of the world in arms 
 
 And we shall shock them : Nought shall make us rue. 
 
 If England to itself do rest but true. — King John, v. 7- 
 
 And we are true to our country so long (and only so 
 long) as we are true to that God who has given us the 
 power to get wealth, and glory and dominion, and to 
 establish an influence over the nations of the earth. ^ 
 
 The Inspired Writers of the Holy Scriptures very 
 frequently direct man's attention to the birds of the air, to 
 the beasts of the field, and even to insects and to flowers, 
 as well calculated to call him back to a sense of his duty, 
 and to impress upon him the responsibilities of his position, 
 as a part of the rational creation of God, The prophet 
 Jeremiah 2 reproves the Israelites for their ignorance of the 
 Lord's judgments, and contrasts their folly with the supe- 
 rior discernment shown by " the stork in the heavens" who 
 knoweth her appointed times, and by the turtle, and the 
 crane, and the swallow, who instinctively observe the 
 proper season of their periodic migration. Isaiah ^ also 
 exposes the obtuseness and stupidity of the same people by 
 the examples of the ox that knoweth his owner, and of the 
 ass that knoweth his master''s crib. The same mode of 
 teaching is employed by Solomon,* and by Him who is 
 in all respects far greater than Solomon. The former 
 refers us to the ants, that we may learn prudence and 
 forethought, and to the locusts, that we may perceive 
 
 ^ Deuteronomy, viii. 18. ^ Jeremiah, viii. 7- ' Isaiah, i,3. 
 "* Proverbs, xx.x. 25.
 
 62 SHAKSPERE 
 
 the manifold benefits arisino- from a clue subordination to 
 the existing powers ;^ and the latter enjoins us to learn 
 wisdom from the serpent, and guilelessness and simplicity 
 from the dove : ^ and when His object is to inculcate a firm 
 reliance on the never-failing Providence of our Heavenly- 
 Father, no fitter mode of instruction suggests itself to the 
 Divine mind, than a reference to the fowls of the air, to the 
 sparrows, and to the lilies of the field. ^ JSloreover, David 
 in the Old Testament,"* and S. James in the New/ censure 
 and expose the folly and obstinacy of man, by the examples 
 of the horse and of the mule, which have no understanding, 
 but must be held in, and curbed by the bit and bridle ; 
 metaphors these, which are so eminently fit and appropriate 
 to the subject, that we are in the habit of employing 
 them, in common conversation, without even once think- 
 ing of their origin. Hence has arisen the use, in ordinary 
 discourse, of such modes of expression as " curbing" an 
 unruly thought; "checking" an unchaste desire; and 
 "bridling" inordinate affections: and on the other hand, as 
 often as we are urged on and stimulated by a violent motive 
 to the execution of any project, the motive which impels us 
 is said to act upon us as a " spur." This mode of speech 
 is fiilly illustrated by our Poet in Richard II., i. 1. 
 
 The fair reverence of your highness curbs me 
 From giving reins and spurs to my fair speech. 
 
 What rein can hold licentious wickedness, 
 When down the hill he holds his fierce career? 
 
 King Henry V., iii. 3. 
 
 And in Henry lY., Part II., iv. 4. 
 
 The fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks 
 The muzzle of restraint. 
 
 ^ Proverbs, xxx. 27. ' Matthew, x. 16. ^ Matthew, vi. 26, 28. 
 ■* Psalm xxxii. 9. * James, iii. 3.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 63 
 
 They must be dieted, like mules. 
 
 Avid have their provender tied to their mouths. 
 
 Henry VI., Part I., i. 2. 
 
 Those that tame wild horses 
 Pace them not in their hands to make them gentle; 
 But stop their mouths with stubborn bits, and spur them 
 Till they obey the manage. — King Henry VHL, v. 2. 
 
 Or, as S. James (iii. 8) has it, "We put bits in the 
 horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn about 
 their whole body," 
 
 We have already noticed the clear reference made by 
 Shakspere to the ant, as an instructor of mankind in 
 prudent forethought ; and as a memorable instance of order 
 and subordination, Solomon has referred us to the locusts. 
 Now in the place of locusts, Shakspere has substituted 
 Bees, and their mode of working in the hives, as clearly 
 showino- the advantages which arise from subordination of 
 rank to rank, and an equitable distribution and allotment of 
 labour and responsibility : The idea is precisely the same in 
 both, though the examples brought forward are different. 
 
 So work the honey bees ; 
 Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach 
 The act of order to a peopled kingdom. 
 They have a king, and officers of sorts : 
 Where some, like magistrates, correct at home ; 
 Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad ; 
 Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings. 
 Make hoot upon the summer's velvet buds ; 
 Which pillage they with merry march bring home 
 To the tent royal of their emperor ; 
 Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 
 The singing masons building roofs of gold ; 
 The civil citizens kneading up the honey ; 
 The poor mechanic porters crowding in 
 Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate ; 
 The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum. 
 Delivering o'er to executors pale 
 The lazy yawning drone. — King Henry V., i.2. 
 
 There is perhaps no one sin into which man, from the
 
 64 SHAKSPERE 
 
 beginning of the world, had been so prone to fall ; none, of 
 which it may be so truly said, that " it peeps out through 
 every part of him;"* none, which puts on such varied 
 guises, and assumes such Protean shapes, as the sin of 
 Pride. This sin shows itself in many different ways. 
 There is the pride of Birth ; the pride of Wealth, and 
 Station; the pride of Intellect; the pride of Humility; and 
 strangest and most unaccountable paradox of all, — the pride 
 of Religion. Pride dates its remote origin from the garden 
 of Eden, and is therefore called by Shakspere " Eve's 
 legacy : "" ^ but, to speak more correctly, we should say 
 that it may be traced back to the mysterious fall of the 
 angels from their original state of purity and innocence. 
 " Whence has he it if not from Hell?"^ So universally 
 prevalent is the sin of Pride among all ranks and classes of 
 society, that few are in a position to declaim against its 
 rankness. We live as it were in a house of glass, and nmst 
 be careful how we throw stones. 
 
 Who cries out on pride 
 That can therein tax any private party ? 
 Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea 
 Till that the weary very means do ebb? 
 What woman in the city do I name. 
 When that 1 say. The city-woman bears 
 The cost of princes on unworthy shoulders? 
 Who can come in, and say that I mean her. 
 When such a one as she, such is her neighbour ? 
 Or what is he of basest function. 
 That says his bravery'' is not on my cost, 
 (Thinking that I mean him,) but therein suits 
 His folly to the mettle of my speech ? 
 There then ; How then ? what then ? Let me see wherein 
 My tongue hath vvrong'd him : if it do him right. 
 Then hath he wrong'd himself; if he be free. 
 Why then, my taxing like a wildgoose flies, 
 Unclaim'd of any man. — As You Like It, ii. 7- 
 
 ' King Henrv VIII., i. 1. * Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 1. 
 3 King Henry VIIL, i. L * Finery.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 65 
 
 I promise never to draw a faulty character which does not fit at least 
 a thousand people. — Spectator, No. 34. 
 
 In the passage just quoted, you will observe that Shak- 
 spere instances another sort of pride, ^ — and one relating to 
 that which ought rather to be a subject of humiliation and 
 shame — the pride of dress. ^ And here he has selected 
 examples of an over-dressed woman, and also of an over- 
 dressed man ; and the moral which the Poet wishes to draw 
 may be drawn, with equal propriety, from either of the 
 examples introduced. Extravagancies in dress are indulged 
 in by both sexes, though they are pardonable in neither. 
 To ovei^-dressed men — called in common parlance " swells," 
 I suppose from their swelling vanity, — it would be a mere 
 waste of time and paper to proffer advice, since fops are not 
 generally overburdened with brains and might therefore 
 deem any admonition offered on the subject an imperti- 
 nence — " their soul is in their clothes."^ To the other 
 sex, however, I shall not hesitate to offer a few remarks, 
 under the full conviction that their superior good sense may 
 incline them more readily to listen to advice offered with 
 all due respect and deference. Two very appropriate and 
 significant epithets have been employed to designate respec- 
 tively the dress of a woman of taste, and the rainbow extra- 
 vagancies of a woman who has no taste at all. These 
 epithets are " quiet" and "loud." The one kind of dress 
 may be elegant, but it is never gaudy ; while the other will 
 serve to make its wearer " the observed of all observers," 
 and seems to clamour as it were for public notice. Well 
 would it be for ladies if they could in any way be led to 
 consider, that it is but a poor investment of their time and 
 
 ' Genesis, ii. 2.5, iii. 21. ^ Ecclns., xi. 4 ^ All's well, ii. 5. 
 
 F
 
 66 SHAKSPERE 
 
 their money to lay them out iu " studying fashions to adorn 
 their bodies," ' inasmuch as none will think or speak 
 approvingly of the outlay, except those whose approval and 
 commendation are not worth possessing. 
 
 'Tis the mind that makes the body rich 
 And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds. 
 So honour peereth in the meanest habit. 
 
 Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3. 
 
 If they have good looks and a virtuous disposition they 
 need not the tinsel of splendid attire to set their persons 
 off ; and if they are not possessed of these advantages, why 
 should they provoke the ill-natured contrast that will be 
 made between the beauty of their attire and the plainness 6f 
 their face ? Any article of female adornment, be it remem- 
 bered, which attracts especial notice, either by its fantastic 
 or by its ambiguous character, a lady of true taste will 
 hesitate to adopt, although it be sanctioned by the ever- 
 chanffincj fashions of a frivolous ao;e. 
 
 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 
 
 But not express'd in fancy ; rich, not gaudy; 
 
 For the apparel oft proclaims the man. — Hamlet, i. 3, 
 
 There is a very humorous anecdote related by a cele- 
 brated Essayist of the last century : " I remember," he 
 says, " when I was at my friend Sir Eoger de Coverley's, 
 about this time twelvemonth, an equestrian lady appeared 
 upon the plains which lay at a distance from his house. 
 I was at that time walking in the fields with my old friend ; 
 and as his tenants ran out on every side to see so strange a 
 sight, Sir Roger asked one of them who came by us what it 
 was ? To which the country fellow replied, ' Tis a gentle- 
 woman, saving your worship's presence, in a coat and hat.'"^ 
 
 1 King'Richard III., i. 2. ^ Spectator, No. 435.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 67 
 
 In the present day the infringement of our patent (if I may 
 so speak) in the matter of dress has become so common, 
 that it is to be feared the time will soon come when there 
 will remain no article of clothing which we may safely call 
 our own. But I feel that this is tender ground on which 
 I am now treading. I will therefore turn to another phase 
 of the universal malady, as developed in one of its most 
 ridiculous and contemptible forms — Purse-pride as it is 
 called. 
 
 The Bible and Shakspere alike expose the folly of this 
 kind of pride ; and both denounce it upon the same grounds. 
 The one tells us, that " All gold and silver turn to dirt," * 
 and the other assures us, that " Riches make to themselves 
 wings and fly away as an eagle towards heaven." ^ The 
 Apostle also warns the rich man not to trust in his riches, 
 because they are an insecure and uncertain possession ; 
 a grant in fact, which may at any time be suddenly and 
 summarily revoked. ^ 
 
 Many a man would be in a fair way of ridding himself of 
 Purse-pride if he would for a few moments consider in what 
 way the money, of which he is so proud, came into his 
 possession. Is it the result of his own activity and dili- 
 gence ? Did he work for it ? Oh no ; — you have only to 
 look at his hands to discover that — hands white and soft as 
 any lady's. He has never experienced the real satisfaction 
 and manly independence which one feels in the possession of 
 riches acquired by honest and patient industry. The fact 
 is, he despises labour, and regards every species of work as 
 mean and degrading. He is living on the wealth which 
 was amassed by his toiling ancestors ; — he is a mere drone 
 
 • Cymbeliue, iii. 6. - Proverbs, xxiii. 5. ^ 1 Timolliy, vi. 17- 
 
 f2
 
 68 SHAKSPERE 
 
 fattening, in ignoble inaction, upon the contents of the well- 
 stocked hive. And such a man, forsooth, is proud ! Would 
 you know the reason? I can assign none, but must refer 
 you for an answer to the Purse-proud person himself. 
 
 But see, here is another, who prides himself upon his 
 riches, not bequeathed to him by his ancestors, but heaped 
 together by his own personal labour. Is not he justly 
 entitled to plume himself somewhat upon the easy and 
 independent position which he has obtained by a course of 
 self-denying exertion and unremitting toil ? It is well 
 perhaps that we are not able to draw aside the curtain, and 
 to disclose to the eyes of his neighbours the miserable 
 frauds by which he has succeeded in collecting together, by 
 little and little, so large a fortune. That man would not 
 feel very proud of his position, if we could reveal to his 
 envious neighbours the mean and petty artifices by which 
 he defrauded the poor man of his penny and the rich man 
 of his pound : he would not feel very proud of his position, 
 if we could reveal the secrets of his outward prosperity ; the 
 scant measure and the short weight, and the infamous 
 adulterations of the common necessaries of life. You would 
 not, I am sure, allow him to justify the practices by which 
 he became rich, by pleading that others are in the habit of 
 doing business in the same way ; that it is " the custom of 
 the trade ; " and that if he had not done so, he must have 
 submitted to be distanced in the race by tradesmen less 
 scrupulously honest than himself. 
 
 Such men as these disgrace their vocation ; they cast an 
 unmerited slur on Trade which is in itself honorable to any 
 man who engages in it ; if, that is, it be conducted on prin- 
 ciples of honesty, and be carried on in that good faith which 
 ought always to exist between the buyer and the seller. But
 
 WEIGHED IN AN ETEN BALANCE. 69 
 
 such is the trickery of tradesmen in the present day, that 
 one is incHned to say with Shakspere, " To be honest, as 
 this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of ten thou- 
 sand." 1 — Hamlet, ii. 2. 
 
 The fair-dealing and upright tradesman may not acquire 
 a competency quite so soon as his unscrupulous and dis- 
 honest neighbour; but his honest labours will be blessed in 
 the end : ^ he will gradually but surely acquire, and main- 
 tain, the confidence of all around him ; and what is far 
 more valuable than all this, he will have that which his 
 overreaching rival can never hope to possess, the testimony 
 of a quiet conscience. 
 
 The consciousness of personal beauty is another of the 
 aliments on which pride is accustomed to feed,^ for 
 
 If ladies be but young and fair. 
 They have the gift to know it. — As You Like it, ii. 6. 
 
 Now a more insecure ground for pride it is impossible to 
 conceive ; for what upon earth can be more uncertain and 
 precarious than that outward form of beauty which con- 
 stitutes the sole fortune of so many ? The sudden inroad 
 of disease, or the equally sure though more gradual ravages 
 of time, will alike obliterate all traces of external charms, 
 and leave their former possessor totally devoid of attrac- 
 tions, if there be no internal resources to fall back on, no 
 inner beauties of the mind, which will peep through the 
 accidental unsightliness of the outward features, and make 
 even plainness itself appear not only not repulsive, but posi- 
 tively agreeable. 
 
 Holy Scripture and Shakspere have both touched upon 
 
 ' Ecclus., xxvii. 2. 2 Proverbs, xx. '21. * Ecclus., xi. 2.
 
 70 SHAKSPERE 
 
 the vanity of Beauty. " Favour is deceitful, and beauty is 
 vain." ' And our Poet tells us 
 
 Beaut}' is but a vain and doubtful good^ 
 A shining gloss thatvadetli suddenly^ 
 A flower that dies^ when first it 'gins to bud, 
 A brittle glass that's broken presently; 
 A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower. 
 Lost, vaded, broken, dead, within an hour. 
 
 Passionate Pilgrim, xi. 
 
 The absurdity of taking pride in a good which is so 
 doubtful, and so entirely independent of the will of its 
 possessor, is too apparent to need any proof. One of the 
 chief dangers attendant on its possession, and indeed upon 
 the possession of any gift of Nature, is the temptation to 
 neglect those more solid and useful ornaments which depend 
 on our own exertions, and for which we are too much dis- 
 posed to consider the external gift as a fitting substitute. 
 
 O how much more doth beauty beauteous seem. 
 
 By that sweet ornament which truth doth give ! 
 
 The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 
 
 For that sweet odour which doth in it live. 
 
 The canker blooms have full as deep a dye. 
 
 As the perfumed tincture of the roses ; 
 
 Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly. 
 
 When summer's breath their masked bud discloses; 
 
 But for their virtue only is their show. 
 
 They live unwoo'd and unrespected fade ; 
 
 Die to themselves ; sweet roses do not so ; 
 
 Of their sweet deaths are sw^eetest odours made. — Sonnets, liv. 
 
 'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud, 
 
 'Tis virtue that doth make them most admired. — King Lear, iii. 2. 
 
 Beauty, however much you may wish to retain it, will, 
 in the very nature of things, gradually (if not suddenly) 
 disappear ; — whereas virtue will daily grow stronger and 
 stronger, confirmed by every separate act of self-discipline. 
 
 ^ Proverbs, xxxi. 30.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 71 
 
 The one is like tlie razor of the itinerant hawker, made only 
 to sell ; the other resembles the good cutlery of the honest 
 trader, which improves by being used. 
 
 A fair face will wither ; a full eye will wax hollow ; but a good heart 
 is the sun and the moon ; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon ; for it 
 shines brioht, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. — King 
 Henry v., v. 2. 
 
 The elder I wax the better I shall appear : my comfort is that 
 old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face : 
 thou hast me, if thou hast me, at the worst ; and thou shalt wear me, 
 if thou wear me, better and better. — King Henry V., v. 2. 
 
 There is another class of men, and it is a very large one, 
 who are infected with a more serious form of pride than any 
 which we have as yet noticed. These are men who pride 
 themselves on religious grounds ; — men who, from a real or 
 fancied superiority over their neighbours, set themselves up 
 as spiritual patterns and examples, and assert their right to 
 be regarded as censors of the public morals. Now if the 
 claims of these men have any real and substantial founda- 
 tion, it ill becomes them to boast of the spiritual gifts which 
 they have received, as though they had not received them ; * 
 if they are truly pious men, surely among the lessons which 
 they are enjoined to learn, lowliness and humility of mind 
 should rank first and foremost. If, however, their religion 
 is only a cloke, a flimsy garb worn but on the Sunday, and 
 during the remainder of the week they clothe their schemes 
 of fraud with "odd old ends stolen forth of Holy Writ,"^ 
 quoting Scripture glibly with the lip, but not feeding on it 
 in the heart ; — what ground have such men for pride ? 
 Ought they not rather to be covered with shame and con- 
 fusion of face, and to look forward with fear, to the Great 
 
 ^ 1 Corinthians, iv. 7- " King Richard III., i. 3.
 
 72 SHAKSPERE 
 
 Day when all hollow pretences will stand open and 
 unmasked before an assembled world? 
 
 We find a beautiful commentary in Shakspere on the 
 words of Scripture, that " God hath made of one blood all 
 nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," * 
 and one which is admirably adapted to show the wickedness 
 and absurdity of those bitter animosities which have, from 
 time to time broken out in the world, among those who 
 entertain different opinions upon subjects of religious belief. 
 
 I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, 
 dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt 
 with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the 
 same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a 
 Christian is. — Merchant of Venice, iii. 1. 
 
 In the same Play, we find the same account as the Bible 
 furnishes, of the increase of Jacob's flocks, an increase which 
 was " swayed and fashioned by the hand of Heaven," (i. S) — 
 cf. Grenesis, xxxi. There also we see the fulfilment of Divine 
 Prophecy in the treatment of a Jew ; that " sufferance is 
 the badge of all their tribe," that they live separately 
 among the nations of the earth, 2— loathed and despised, — 
 an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among the 
 people.^ In the character of Shylock the Jew, Shakspere 
 has set before us a man, whose hardheartedness and pitiless 
 revenge excite our disgust, and utter indignation ; but with 
 the candour and truth which belong to a Poet of nature, he 
 has not failed to show us also, the long-continued acts of 
 oppression, and the unchristian contempt which had served 
 to fan the unholy feeling of revenge into a flame, and to 
 stir up that settled wrath which the soft ausw^er of the 
 Judge had no power to turn away."* 
 
 * Acts, xvii. 26. " Ezekiel, xx. 23. 
 
 ^ Deuteronomy, xxviii. 37. ■* Proverbs, xv. 1.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 73 
 
 Let us now take another instance of the minute corre- 
 spondence of our Poefs teaching with that of Holy Scrip- 
 ture. The Bible assures us that "favour is deceitful:"' 
 that it is vain to put our trust in men, or to repose confi- 
 dence even in the most powerful and exalted among the 
 princes of the earth. " Put not your trust in princes, nor 
 in the son of man, in whom there is no help. It is better 
 to trust in the Lord^'"^ 
 
 O momentary grace of mortal men, 
 Wliich we more hunt for than the "race of God. 
 Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks 
 Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast/ 
 Ready, with every nod, to tumble down. 
 Into the fatal bowels of the deep. 
 
 King Richard III., iii. 4. 
 
 There is no trust. 
 No faith, no honesty in men ; all perjur'd. 
 All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2. 
 
 Or (to use the words of the Psalmist), " They are 
 estranged from the womb, they go astray, as soon as they 
 be born, speaking lies,""^ " The faithful fail from among 
 the children of men." ^ 
 
 There is a habit, into which men are very prone to fall, 
 from a forgetfulness of the importance of the work which 
 each one has to perform, and of the short time which has 
 been allotted to him for its performance.^ I mean the 
 habit of perpetually interfering with the concerns of their 
 neighbours. Men of this sickly stamp are to be found in 
 every circle of society. Any one of us could doubtless 
 point out one or two of them among his own acquaintance, 
 
 ' Proverbs, xxxi. 30. - Psalm cxlvi. 3 ; Psalm cxviii. 9. 
 
 ^ Proverbs, xxiii. 34. '' Psalm Iviii. 3. 
 
 ^ Psalm xii. 1. '' John, ix.4.
 
 74 SHAKSPERE 
 
 though it is to be hoped, not among his intimate friends. 
 The diligence and assiduity which they bestow on their 
 work of impertinent meddling, are worthy of a better 
 cause. One would suppose, when he witnessed their untir- 
 ing exertions, that they had been constituted a general 
 commission of inquiry into the faults and short-comings of 
 their neighbours ; a sort of "local board of health" appointed 
 for the express purpose of removing nuisances, and suggest- 
 ing private improvements; a staff of surveyors -general, 
 who, quite at ease respecting their own dwellings, deem it 
 their especial business to rush about in all directions to 
 examine the security and stability of the houses around 
 .them. 
 
 S. Peter, in describing such persons, makes use of a very 
 remarkable and expressive word which in our English 
 version is rendered " a busybody in other men's matters." * 
 Now this rendering fails to convey to us the full force and 
 expressiveness of the original word used by the Apostle. 
 The word properly signifies " A Bishop who takes upon 
 him to interfere in the management of a diocese which does 
 not belono-to him." It has often struck me in readinsr this 
 verse from S. Peter''s First Epistle, that no stronger proof 
 could be given, of the criminality of busybodies, than the 
 fact that Holy Scripture classes them with " evil-doers, 
 with thieves, and with murderers." " Every fool," says 
 Solomon, " will be meddling." ^ Busybodies are, beyond 
 all doubt, a pest and a nuisance to the society in which 
 they move : by their rash and untimely interference they 
 " bring oil to fire," and heap on fuel to quarrels which, if 
 let alone, would die out of themselves : they run to and fro 
 
 ^ 1 Peter, iv. 15. - Proverbs, xx. 3.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 75 
 
 tlirouj^li the city, find clothe baseless and unfounded suspi- 
 cious iu the garb of reality and truth.' " Wretched, rash, 
 intruding fools " is the language in which our Poet describes 
 them. 2 The misery which they cause is incalculable ; 
 infinitely more than they themselves intend to cause, or 
 suppose, for one moment, that they are capable of causing, 
 by their wicked and thoughtless interference with what 
 does not concern them. One moment's thought on the 
 subject would deter them from such impertinences, but they 
 will not be at the trouble of thinking, until the mischief is 
 done ; the folly of their conduct then becomes as evident 
 to the meddlers themselves, as it has been all along to those 
 who have been silent and sorrowful observers of their 
 conduct. 
 
 The folly of Revenge, and the certainty of our wrath 
 recoiling on our own heads, is shown by a reference to the 
 History of the Three Saints who were cast by the Heathen 
 monarch into a burning fiery furnace, and escaped un- 
 harmed ; while the fierce flame burned up the executioners 
 of the tyrant's decree.^ 
 
 Heat not a furnace for your foe so liot 
 
 That it do singe yourself. — Henry VHI,, i. 1. 
 
 It is Shakspere who tells us, that 
 
 The silence often of pure innocence 
 
 Persuades, when speaking fails. — Winter's Tale, ii. 2. 
 
 In the same way S. Peter inculcates the duty of wives 
 to be in subjection to their husbands, that if any obey not 
 the word, they may, without the word, be won by the con- 
 versation of the wives, while they behold their chaste 
 
 ' Proverbs, xxvi. 17; Ecclus., xi. 9, 10; xxi. 25. 
 2 Hamlet, iii. 4. •' Daniel, iii.
 
 76 SHAKSPERE 
 
 conversation coupled with fear.' The word conversation 
 being used here, as in other places ^ where it occurs in our 
 English translation, not in the sense in which we now use 
 it, viz., as familiar discourse, but in its more primitive and 
 extended sense, as signifying the ordinary course of our 
 life ; the whole system which we adopt in our daily 
 practice. 
 
 As also in Shakspere : 
 
 But all are banish'd, till their conversations 
 Appear more wise and modest to the world. 
 
 King Henry IV., Part II., v. 5. 
 
 Our Poet speaks in another place of one 
 
 Whose voice was ever soft. 
 Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman. 
 
 King Lear, v. 3. 
 
 Solomon had given utterance to the same sentiment 
 more than two thousand years before, when he said, " A 
 foolish woman is clamorous, she is simple and knoweth 
 nothing." ^ And in his celebrated description of the virtuous 
 woman, given by King Lemuel, we are told, that "when 
 she openeth her mouth, it is with wisdom."'* 
 
 Love and tongue-tied simplicity 
 In least, speak most. — Midsummer Night's Dream, v. 1. 
 
 So that young ladies who are ridiculed by their acquaint- 
 ance for having so little to say for themselves, may possibly, 
 after all, be more solid and valuable members of society 
 than their volatile and talkative neighbours. True it is, 
 there is a medium in this, as in everything else ; there is 
 surely some pleasant resting-place between unsociable 
 
 ^ 1 Peter, iii. 1, 2 ; of. Ecclus., xxvi. 14. 
 2 Galatians, i. 13 ; 1 Timothy, iv. 12 ; 1 Peter, i. 15, 18, &c. 
 ^ Proverbs, ix. 13 ; cf. Ecclus., xxvi. 27. * Proverbs, xxxi. 26.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 77 
 
 taciturnity and insufferable loquacity ; to avoid being a 
 chatterer one need not become a dummy. No one need be 
 a silent and unprofitable listener in company ; for each has 
 it in her power to increase to some extent, the general 
 stock of information ; and indeed some vouns; ladies mioht 
 impart an immense amount of very profitable information ; 
 and would do so, were they not prevented by the incessant 
 and frivolous prattle of their less sober companions. Pray, 
 young ladies of the talkative class, do not give impertinent 
 witticism occasion to ask you to what vegetable your tongue 
 is most like : do not run on so fast, and then you will have 
 the satisfaction of knowing, that there is no resemblance 
 whatever between your tongue and the vegetable alluded 
 to except as regards its singularly beautiful and healthy 
 colour ; never speak without thinking ; and do not 
 consider yourselves bound to speak whatever first comes 
 into your mind ; speak for edification and improvement, 
 and you will gain the respect and esteem of all around 
 you. 
 
 The separate destination of the body and of the soul 
 after death, is clearly pointed out in the Book of Eccle- 
 siastes.i We are there told, that "the dust shall return 
 to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God 
 who <jave it." 
 
 So Shakspere : 
 
 Mount, mount my soul ! thy seat is up on high ; 
 Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward here to die. 
 King Richard II., v. 5. 
 
 Thou hadst but power over his mortal body ; 
 
 His soul tiiou cans't not have. — King Richard III., i. 2. 
 
 Cf. Matthew, x. 28. 
 
 ' xii. 7.
 
 78 SHAKSPERE 
 
 A grave unto a soul ; 
 Holding the eternal spirit, against her will. 
 In the vile prison of afflicted breath. 
 
 King John, iii. 4. 
 
 Cf. 2 Corinthians, v. 4 ; Wisdom, ix. 15. 
 
 A very common metaphor used by the Inspired Writers, 
 to express the state of death, is Sleep. And just as in the 
 repose which our bodies take in sleep, human consciousness 
 is still preserved ; so we have no reason to conclude that in 
 the deeper sleep of death our faculties will be destroyed. 
 So Shakspere says : 
 
 He gave his honours to the world again. 
 
 His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace. 
 
 Henry VIH., iv. 2. 
 
 Again : 
 
 To die, — to sleep ; — 
 To sleep! — perchance to dream ; ay, there's the rub; 
 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come. 
 When we have shuffled off this mortal coil. ... 
 
 Hamlet, iii. 1. 
 
 So much indeed does Death resemble Sleep, that our 
 Poet calls " Sleep, death's counterfeit." — Macbeth, ii. 3. 
 And the broad area in which we bury the dead out of our 
 sight, has, by a beautiful and significant euphemism, been 
 designated a Ccemetery, that is to say, a place for sleep. 
 This truly Christian idea ' has, within the last few years, 
 been more than ever encouraged, by the salutary regulation 
 which forbids interments in churchyards surrounded by the 
 abodes of the living ; and the bodies of the departed are 
 now, for the most part, borne away to rest in quiet and 
 sequestered places, such as common humanity suggests, and 
 religion sanctions and approves. 
 
 ^ Acts, vii. 60; 1 Corinthians, xv. 6, 18; 1 Thessalonians, iv. 13; 
 2 Peter, iii. 4, &c.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 79 
 
 The image of a " troubled fountain" is employed both by 
 Solomon and by Shakspere, to denote a state of foulness 
 and pollution, where we should naturally expect to discover 
 purity and transparency. The wise man tells us, that " a 
 righteous man falling down before the wicked, is as a 
 troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring ; " ' and in Shakspere 
 we read, that 
 
 A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled ; 
 Muddy, illseeming, thick, bereft of beauty. 
 
 Taming of the Shrew, v. 2. 
 
 There are no such ruthless spoilers of personal beauty as 
 anger and moroseness. Habitual bad temper will in time 
 disfi2:ure and mar the fairest features. Passion will oblite- 
 rate every trace of good looks as surely, if not so quickly, 
 as does small-pox ; while habitual good temper will gradu- 
 ally impart charms to the plainest face, so that she, who 
 cannot boast of a single good feature, will be a more agree- 
 able companion than her beautiful neighbour with her 
 perfectly classical features and woefully imperfect temper. 
 
 It is owing to the pride which young ladies, who are 
 good looking, take in their personal attractions, that they 
 frequently care but little about the cultivation of mental 
 and intellectual adornments ; such studies they are too 
 much disposed to leave to the less beautiful of their sex, 
 whom they suppose to stand in greater need of such recom- 
 mendations. 
 
 We are told in Holy Scripture, that " every creature 
 of God is good ;'"2 and in the Apocrjqiha, that " The Lord 
 hath created medicines out of the earth, and he that is 
 wise will not abhor them."^ Hear now Shakspere : 
 
 1 Proverbs, xxv. 26. - 1 Timothy, iv. 4. ' Ecclesiasticus, xxxviii. 4.
 
 80 SHAKSPERE 
 
 O mickle is the pow'rful grace, that lies 
 In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities; 
 For naught so vile that on the earth doth live 
 But to the earth some special good doth give. 
 Nor aught so good, but, strain'd from that fair use. 
 Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3. 
 
 Tims confirming the limitation which S. Paul sets to the 
 proposition, that every creature of God is good, viz. " if it 
 be received with thanksgiving." 
 
 The warnings which we find in Holy Scripture against 
 delay, and the oft-repeated exhortations to embrace present 
 opportunities, find an echo in the words. 
 
 Omission to do what is necessary 
 Seals a commission to a blank of danger ; 
 And danger, like an ague, subtly taints, 
 Ev'n then when we sit idly in the sun. 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, iii 3. 
 
 I have learn'd that fearful commenting 
 Is leaden servitor to dull delay. — King Richard III., iv. 3. 
 
 There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
 
 Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune ; 
 
 Omitted — All the voyage of their life 
 
 Is bound in shallows, and in miseries. 
 
 On sucii a full sea are we now afloat; 
 
 And we must take the current when it serves. 
 
 Or lose our ventures. Julius CiEsar, iv. 3. 
 
 Who seeks, and will not take, when once 'tis offer'd. 
 Shall never find it more. — Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 7- 
 
 Our doubts are traitors. 
 And make us lose the good we oft might win. 
 By fearing to attempt. — Measure for Measure, i. 5. 
 
 There are times when it would be an evident mark of 
 folly in a man to follow the cautious advice given in the 
 old adage " Slow and Sure." Who does not know that there 
 are certain crises in the life of almost every man, when he is 
 called upon to act with vigour and decision, to act on the 
 spur of the moment ; when there is no time allowed him for 
 calm and quiet deliberation ; when a sudden danger must
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 81 
 
 be averted, if it be averted at all, by a display of energy 
 uo less sudden than the peril which calls it into action ? 
 
 Holy Scripture teaches us that " it is not good for man 
 to be alone;" we read there "woe unto him that is alone 
 when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up ;" * 
 but we also learn from the same divine source of knowledge 
 that there are times when it is our duty to seek retirement 
 and solitude in order that we may enjoy closer communion 
 with our Maker, and prepare ourselves anew for encoun- 
 tering the temptations of the outer wo rid. ^ 
 
 If from society we learn to live, 
 
 'Tis solitude should teach us how to die ; 
 
 It hath no flatterers; vanity can give 
 
 No hollow aid ; alone — man with his God must live. 
 
 The same lesson is taught us in " As You Like It." The 
 scene is laid in the Forest of Arden : the speaker is the 
 banished Duke : 
 
 Now, my co-mates, and brothers in exile. 
 Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 
 Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods 
 More free from peril than the envious court ? 
 Here feel we not the penalty of Adam, 
 The season's difference, — as the icy fang 
 And churlish chiding of the winter's wind. 
 Which when it bites, and blows upon my body. 
 Even till I shrink with cold, I smile, and say. 
 This is no flattery ; these are counsellors 
 That feelingly persuade me what I am. — ii. 1. 
 
 In the exercise of Benevolence and Almsgiving, there 
 are two injunctions given in Holy Scripture, which would, 
 at first sight, appear to be inconsistent with each other. 
 The one tells us, not to let our left hand know what our 
 
 ' Genesis^ ii. 18 ; Ecclesiastes, iv. 10. - Psalm iv. 4 ; Ixxvii. 6. 
 
 G
 
 82 SHAKSPERE 
 
 right hand doetli,' or in other words we are directed to do 
 our ahns with the utmost secrecy : the other commands 
 us, to " let our hght so shine before men, that they may 
 see our good works and glorify our Father which is in 
 heaven."- In the former command, says a celebrated 
 Moralist,-'' our Saviour's sole design was to forbid ostenta- 
 tion, and all publishing of good works which proceeds from 
 that motive, " Take heed that ye do not your alms before 
 men to he seen of them.'''' He then goes on to say, there are 
 motives for the doing our alms in public, beside those of 
 ostentation^ with which, therefore, our Saviour's rule has 
 no concern : such as, to testify our approbation of some 
 particular species of charity, and to recommend it to 
 others ; to take off the prejudice which the want, or, which 
 is the same thing, the suppression, of our name in the list 
 of contributors, might excite against the charity, or 
 against ourselves. And so long as these motives are free 
 from any mixture of vanity, they are in no danger of 
 invading our Saviour's prohibition ; they seem rather to 
 comply with the other direction that we should do our 
 alms in public. 
 
 Shakspere has ,the same idea in the " Merchant of 
 Venice" : 
 
 How far that little candle throws his beams ! 
 
 So shines a good deed in a naughty world.^ — v. 1. 
 
 Let us take another example of the correspondence of 
 our Poet's teaching with that of the Bible. Holy Scripture 
 teaches us, that the tears of a repentant sinner call forth 
 
 ^ Matthew, vi. 3. ■ Matthew, v. 16. ^ Paley, Mor. Ph., v. 
 ■* Matthew, v. 15^ 16.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 83 
 
 rejoicing among the angels in heaven.' So in Shakspere 
 we read : 
 
 Then is there mirth in heaven 
 When earthly things made even 
 Atone together. — As You Like It, v. 4. 
 
 We learn from Holy Scripture, that a true and genuine 
 penitent will make a restitution of whatever he has obtained 
 by fraud or violence.^ Listen now to Shakspere : 
 
 O, what form of prayer 
 Can serve my turn ? forgive me my foul murder 
 That cannot be ; since 1 am still possessed. 
 Of those effects for which I did the murder. 
 
 Hamlet, iii. 3. 
 
 In the same way does our Scriptural Church exhort 
 those who intend to receive the Holy Communion, to 
 " make restitution and satisfaction to the uttermost of their 
 power, for all injuries and wrongs done by them to any 
 other," for if they are not prepared to do this — they are 
 not truly penitent, and therefore ought not "to come to 
 the Lord's Supper." 
 
 The sanctity of vows and oaths is invariably inculcated, 
 both in Holy Scripture,^ and in Shakspere : but there arc 
 certain cases in which we subsequently discover that per- 
 formance is unlawful. Such was King Herod's oath to his 
 dauofhter-in-law, that he would give her whatever she 
 should ask, even to the half of his kingdom.'* Her choice of 
 John Baptist's head, of course put it out of the king's power 
 lawfully to perform his promise. The same may perhaps 
 apply to the case of Jeptha's vow respecting his daughter.^ 
 
 ' Luke, XV. 7- ^ Luke, xix.8. ' Ecclesiasfes, v. 4, 5. 
 
 ^ Mark, vi. 23, 24. ' Judges, xi. 30. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 SHAKSPERE 
 
 To keep that oath were more impiety 
 
 Than Jephtha's when he sacrificed his daughter. • 
 
 King Henry VI., Part III., v. I. 
 
 'Tis not the many oaths that make the truth ; — 
 But the plain sinj^le vow, that is vow'd true. 
 What is not holy, that we swear not by. 
 But take the Highest to witness. — All's Well, iv. 2. 
 
 Cf. Matthew, v. 33 — 38 ; Romans, i. 9 ; I Thessalonians, ii. 5, &c. 
 
 Both the Bible and Shakspere liave distinguished between 
 "idle merriment" and reasonable mirth. Solomon tells us 
 that there is " a time to weep and a time to laugh :" ' and 
 S. Paul admonishes us to "rejoice as though we rejoiced 
 not ;"2 or, to use the words of our Poet, we should restrain 
 ourselves " Within the limit of becoming mirth.'" — Love's 
 Labour Lost, ii. 1, 
 
 A man who is perpetually smiling, always on the titter, 
 is equally objectionable with one who never smiles at all : 
 nothing is so offensive as the person who is always breaking 
 out into a fooPs laugh ; — grinning, when he should appear 
 serious, and thus wounding the feelings of the speaker, and 
 violating the commonest rules of good breeding. Now he 
 will indulge the company with some vile and execrable pun; 
 or inflict upon them a miserable joke ; and to guard against 
 its passing unnoticed, he will take care to supply the 
 laughter as well as the joke, forgetting all the while the old 
 Proverb, " He that laughs at his ain joke, spoils the sport 
 o t. 
 
 There be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some barren 
 quantity of spectators to laugh too ; that's villainous ; and shows a most 
 pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. — Hamlet, iii. 2. 
 
 Mirth, however, within the proper limits is both rational 
 and salutary ; for although, as Shakspere says, it " cannot 
 
 ' Ecclesiastes, iii. 4. ^ 1 Corinthians, vii. 30.
 
 WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE. 85 
 
 move a soul in agony," yet " it bars a thousand harms and 
 
 lengthens life." 
 
 For so the doctors hold it very meet ; 
 
 Seeing too much sadness doth congeal the blood. 
 
 And melancholy is the nurse of frenzy. 
 
 Taming of the Shrew (Induction). 
 
 And Solomon tells us, that " a merry heart doeth good 
 like a medicine :"* and that it "maketh a cheerful counte- 
 nance, but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken." ^ 
 
 Those that are in extremity of either, [melancholy and laughing] are 
 abominable fellows ; and betray themselves to every modern censure. — 
 As You Like It, iv. 1. 
 
 Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time: 
 
 Some that will evermore peep through their eyes. 
 
 And laugh, like parrots, at a bag-piper : 
 
 And other of such vinegar aspect, 
 
 That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile. 
 
 Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable. 
 
 Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 
 
 I shall now bring my remarks to a conclusion. Enough 
 has, I think, been brought forward, to establish, as I pro- 
 posed to do, the fact that the unchanging truths of God's 
 Inspired Word underlie the teaching of the Immortal Bard 
 of Avon. It would be no difficult task, but an easy and a 
 pleasant one, to set before the reader further illustrations of 
 the correspondency of Shakspere"'s teaching with that of the 
 Bible ; but in so doing, I might possibly incur the suspicion 
 of attempting 
 
 To guard a title that was rich before. 
 
 To gild refined gold, to paint the lily. 
 
 To throw a perfume on the violet; 
 
 To smooth the ice, or add another hue 
 
 Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light 
 
 To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish, 
 
 A wasteful and ridiculous excess. — King John, iv. 2. 
 
 ^ Proverbs, xvii. 22. 
 
 - Proverbs, XV. 13; cf. Ecclus., xiii. 2.5 ; xxxviii. 18.
 
 86 SHAKSPERE, ETC. 
 
 My task is now done. In reviewing our Poet I have 
 endeavoured to speak of him "as he is;" "to extenuate 
 nothing, nor set aught down in mahce," ^ and in so doing, I 
 think I have proved, that " taking him for all in all, we 
 shall not look upon his like again :"2 and I trust that 
 those, who, either from ignorance, or from prejudice, have 
 hitherto conceived an erroneous opinion of the works of our 
 great Poet, will be forced to acknowledge that even " in 
 things evil"" (if so they will have it) "there is some soul of 
 goodness, would men observingly distil it out.'''^ This I 
 have attempted to do;'* and I feel bound to confess, that I 
 have been thus led to admire and appreciate, more than 
 ever, the writings of one who (in the words of I. M. S.^) 
 
 from lofty throne 
 Creates and rules a world, and works upon 
 Mankind by secret enojines ; now to move 
 A chilling pity, then a rigorous love ; 
 To strike up and stroke down both joy and ire ; 
 To steer the affections, and by heavenly fire, 
 Mould us anew, stol'n from ourselves. 
 
 1 Othello, V. 2. * Hamlet, i. 2. ^ King Henry V., iv. i. 
 '' Midsummer Night's Dream, i. 1. ^ ? John Milton Student. 
 
 F. Shoberl, Printer, 37, Dean Street, Soho, W.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 STACK COLLECTION 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 0m-8,'65(F6447s4)9482
 
 l{f 51 '03059 0366 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A A 001 425 461